


King of New York

by Deathofme



Series: The Three [3]
Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-10-30
Updated: 2012-10-13
Packaged: 2017-10-25 02:41:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 57,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/270833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathofme/pseuds/Deathofme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[Sequel to The Three, and Sybarite]</p><p>Nikola is the newly appointed Head of New York Sanctuary. While Helen desperately tries to find a way to free him of permanently housing the energy elemental, Nikola seems more concerned about other things: his new team of idiots, dodging the Russians, dealing with the Mafia, the quarterly reports, and a little thing called....paradise (and a holiday for two).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> The third installment of "The Three" series! This fic, however, can stand alone. Important things to know going in are John Druitt has been excised of his energy elemental which Nikola keeps in an EM shield he is physically attached to. Nikola is now Head of New York.
> 
> Housekeeping note: the next chapter may not come for a little while as there is a huge chunk of craziness happening in RL for the first two weeks of November. Chapters will be updated as they are written.

 

 

         “He’s done _what?_ ”

 

         “Really, Doctor Magnus, I insist you come straight away.” Helen heard the flurry of commotion and raised voices on the other line, and winced when something shattered to the ground. It sounded like glass.

 

         “And Doctor Magnus?”

 

         “Yes, Declan?” She felt horribly guilty. Declan MacRae was not a man who begged often or lightly.

 

         “Next time could you make sure we’re never assigned the same rooms?”

 

         “Of course.”

 

         Helen hurried out of her hotel room whilst trying to fit in a pair of elaborate and rather fiddly earrings, somehow managed not to trip on her heels, and ran for the suites down the hall from hers. Already in the hallway she saw a crowd of hysterical cleaning ladies, other bewildered hotel guests and a flock of startled pigeons. This could only mean one thing…

 

         “ _Nikola_!”

 

         She burst into the room, shutting the door behind her to spare the innocent bystanders in the hallway for the ear-full she was about to unleash on him. She saw him standing by the suite balcony, one leg over the railing as if he were about to jump off. He gave her a sheepish grin.

 

         “What the _hell_ have you done?”

 

         He held up an imperious finger as if about to lecture her, but his shoe caught in the rail and he nearly stumbled and tipped over. She sighed. “You can try getting down from there first. It’s rather undignified.”

 

         He finally managed to extract himself from the balcony rail and shook dust from his pant legs. He was pouting ( _of course_ ) and folded his arms across his chest. “So is whatever this fresh hell you’ve dragged me into.”

 

         Helen looked to Declan for help, but he was already in an armchair with his nose stuck in a glass of brandy. He shook his head firmly at her; he’d already dealt with enough for one night. She turned back to the sulking vampire.

 

         “It’s only a charity dinner.”

 

         “You’re not making the compelling argument you think you are.”

 

         She glared at him. “It’s your responsibility to attend.”

 

         He merely raised his eyebrows at her in the peak of nonchalance. “It’s like you don’t hear what I say.”

 

         “I will have the other Heads of Houses cut your funding by half for this quarter if you make good with your escape.” She lifted a challenging eyebrow back at him, daring him to test her patience any further. Nikola cast a furtive glance over to Declan, who nodded fervently in agreement with Helen.

 

         “You can’t do that!” He whined.

 

         “ _Watch me_.”

 

         Nikola looked from Helen to Declan, and then back again. His shoulders finally slumped and he gave a long-suffering sigh, defeated. He held up his hands in surrender and walked over to the table he had appropriated as his desk and picked up the half-finished bottle of wine resting on its surface. He took a hearty swig as if to prepare himself for the bureaucratic nightmare he was about to endure.

 

         Helen glared at him. “I’ll see you gentlemen down at the reception hall in ten minutes. And fix your tie.”

 

         She left before she could hear anymore grumbling, and tried to calm down the hysterical cleaning ladies in the hallway. A rather flummoxed bellhop helped her chase the pigeons out an obliging window, and when she looked at the time she was already running ten minutes late. Typical. She should have known what she was getting herself into when she suggested Nikola take over the position in New York.

 

         The reception hall was already buzzing with muted chatter as the different Heads of Houses, politicians, businessmen and various other investors circuited the room and mingled. She could understand why Nikola would want to escape this particular duty, it was a horribly stuffy event, but this was one of the main venues for the Sanctuary network to secure funding, business deals, political asylum and continue operating.

 

         “You have something in your hair.”

 

         Helen turned to see Nikola standing beside her, gently pulling a feather from her hair. Annoyed, she tried to smooth down her now mussed locks and glared at him.

 

         “I thought I made it clear that I wasn’t going to babysit you and that _you_ were going to behave.”

 

         Nikola ignored her and handed her a glass. “I brought you wine. Now tell me who I have to be nice to.”

 

         Helen gratefully sipped at the glass, and quickly scanned the room. “I made sure to invite some ambassadors from different energy corporations to see if you wanted to strike a partnership with their design teams. The mayor of New York is here. And you should check in with Onryuji about Tokyo’s new transfer of residents.”

 

         “Why should I care about his new shipment of snake beasties?”

 

         Helen lifted a seemingly casual eyebrow. “Because they’re vampire snake beasties.”

 

         That managed to catch Nikola’s interest, though he refused to admit it. Helen placed a hand on his arm. “There’s one thing though, there’s someone here that I really don’t need you…”

 

         It was too late. Nikola had already been performing his own scans of the room, his eyes alert and attentive, and they suddenly narrowed into a sharp frown. “Helen…you didn’t tell me General Electric was going to be here…”

 

         Helen took a deep breath, looked around quickly to see if Declan was nearby, decided he wouldn’t help even if he could after the hotel room incident, and then downed the rest of her glass in a quick gulp.

 

         Nikola’s face had already settled into a cool smile and he stalked towards a group of men in the center of the room. “ _Edison_ …”

 

         If only there was a way to conceal a gun in this dress… Helen watched as Nikola strode boldly over to the group of men, effectively interrupting their conversation, and latched his attentions onto one gentleman in particular. Blood descendant of Thomas Edison…

 

         The man hid his discomfort exceedingly well, and with a polite smile he held out his hand to Nikola. “Doctor Tesla, I’m honoured.”

 

         Nikola didn’t deign to shake the man’s hand, instead occupying himself by wiping his fingers with his pocket square. “You’re an Edison. I can smell it on you.” He looked sharply to a younger man standing just to his right. “You as well…”

 

         “Yes, I’m distantly related to him through my mother. My name is actually Edward Miller. And this is my son Raymond.”

 

         Nikola only glanced at the boy briefly and gave the most plastic of smiles. “Charmed, I’m sure.”

 

         “I was actually most looking forward to meeting you, Doctor. I’ve been told—”

 

         “You know, it took me years trying to convince your _distant_ _relative_ to buy one of my alternating current generators,” Nikola interrupted. “And to think he was going to steal it off of me anyway, along with most of my best ideas, and my Nobel prize.”

 

         Edward Miller’s face set into a frown. He sensed this wasn’t going to be a cordial meeting at all. “From my understanding neither of you won that prize.”

 

         “No…more the pity. He was very fat you know, a horrible glutton and a drunk. Always kept a bottle of sour-mash whiskey in his desk while there were others doing real work…” Nikola flashed his most charming grin as Miller squirmed uncomfortably under the scrutiny.

 

         “Doctor Tesla—”

 

         “You’re ostensibly here to bid for the designs of my modified cirillium power generator and its alternates that use materials more common to Earth. But you’re really here to pick my brain over the global hijack that occurred about a year ago because you think I know something.” The stunned look on Miller’s face merely confirmed Nikola’s suspicions, and he couldn’t help the grin widening on his face. It was _so_ much fun to have this poor man in the palm of his hand.

 

         “You can have the bid. Think of it as an act of charity to help you in your everlasting race against Westinghouse. As for the second matter, I have a proposal.”

 

         Miller was going puce in the face trying to keep up with Nikola’s high octane, barbed exchange, and spluttered, “What is it?”

 

         Nikola flicked his eyes meaningfully over to Raymond Miller. “You send your son to come work for me at New York Sanctuary. He’ll fetch my wine, he’ll answer my phone, take my letters, deal with my moods, make my excuses, and to add on top of the indignity of being nothing more than a glorified secretary, once a week he will have to submit an oral report on why Thomas Edison and General Electric will always remain inferior to Lighthouse Industries.”

 

         Edward Miller’s eyes looked as if they were ready to pop out of his head, and Raymond was looking similarly nervous for his dubious future. Nikola wasn’t finished with the man yet, though.

 

         “And for the year he’s away from dear pater’s arms, I will pay him fifty thousand dollars. Think of it as my having finally caught up with the American sense of humour. For this, you can ask me three questions about what I know of the global hijack.”

 

         “ _Three_ questions?” Edward Miller could barely choke out the words, struggling to maintain his composure and not wring Nikola’s scrawny neck.

 

         Nikola merely shrugged and tapped his temple. “Think about all you can do with three questions and this brain. I’m sure you’ll consider my proposal very carefully. Now, if you’ll excuse me, gentlemen.” He turned on his heel and walked briskly away, a spring in his step.

 

         When he rejoined Helen he immediately took her hand and gave her a small twirl. His glee was painted on his face. “What are you going to do with a new hire, Nikola? You can’t afford one.”

 

         Nikola pouted. “Hey, I need a Will too, but one who uses less hair gel.”

 

         Helen looked over her shoulder nervously. “The man’s staring daggers at you.”

 

         Nikola could only grin. “I know…it’s _killing_ him. But trust me, I’ll wrangle the network a nice discount on all energy bills, isolated power grids and a higher usage ceiling by the time we hit after-dinner drinks. It’s all part of that good old Serbian charm.”

 

         Helen muttered darkly under her breath, “If you aren’t assassinated by after-dinner drinks, colour me surprised.”

 

***

 

         For dinner, Helen made sure that the representatives of General Electric were seated very far away from Nikola to spare them further of his sense of fun. He glared over at her a few times as he was seated beside Onryuji and was disturbed by the man’s diet of select grubs and insects. Onryuji dramatically bit the head off a particularly fat grub and held the wriggling thing between his fingers with exaggerated relish, enjoying the look of disgust on his colleague’s face.

 

         Well, wouldn’t he be surprised when his menu showed up. As many of the attendants to the event were abnormals, everyone’s specific dietary needs had been accommodated for. When Nikola’s server arrived it was with a glass full of warm, antelope blood.

 

         Nikola sniffed the glass a touch hesitantly, taking his time to pick out the rich scent. He felt a bit nervous, it had been a while since he had fed properly and not on plasma synthetic, and he quickly called to mind his recent cycle of medication before taking a sip. He felt something deep within him purr its appreciation, and hid a shudder as he continued to drink.

 

         When Helen chanced a look over at him, she noticed his eyes flickering back and forth from blue-gray to midnight black. She watched, curious and a little fearful, but the flickering lasted for only a short moment. It seemed Nikola hadn’t even noticed it himself.

 

         Nikola set down his glass, he had drained it in under a minute. His server asked him if he cared for another, and he waved him away. He had enjoyed the blood too much and it scared him a little.

 

         Helen’s server tapped her on the shoulder and passed her a small slip of paper. Thanking her, she opened the small note and read “Stop staring at me, think of the scandal. I bet I can raise more money than you.” She looked over at Nikola, who pretended to ignore her, but couldn’t resist a quick wink.

 

         Her mouth set in a grim smile. Fool had gone far in over his head now, no one was better at charming a large room of wealthy individuals like Helen Magnus.

 

         She sent him back a quick note that simply said, “Loser hosts the next full network meeting.”

 

         When Nikola received the note he mouthed across the room, “devil”.

 

***

 

         Helen eased back into the cushioned sitting chair, feeling the muscles in her back and legs finally begin to unknot and sighed. Gratefully, she finished the last few sips of wine in her glass. Most of the Heads of Houses had retired to their private rooms, and the hour was very late.

 

         Nikola finally swanned in and settled into the chair beside hers, an infuriatingly smug look on his face. Helen arched an eyebrow. “Well?”

 

         He held onto his mocking, secretive grin. “We’ll promise we won’t let this come between us?”

 

         “Oh, out with it.”

 

         He flexed his fingers. “Nine hundred, seventy-six thousand dollars. And some change.” Helen continued to look at him demurely and the grin slowly slid off his face. “You’re still smiling.”

 

         “One million, four hundred and twenty-thousand.” She patted his hand mockingly. “And some change.”

 

         He stared at her absolutely stone still and she could swear there was steam coming out of his ears. He finally held out a hand and demanded, “receipts”.

 

         Helen handed over her carefully organized binder of receipts and affidavits and laughed gaily as Nikola’s eyebrows nearly leapt out of his hair. He tossed back the folder in disgust and poured himself a fresh glass of wine. He mumbled unhappily, “When’s the next full network meeting?”

 

         “In two weeks.”

 

         “And absolutely _everyone_ is coming?”

 

         Helen spared no pity for him, reveling in her victory. “Sour grapes, Nikola. You can’t stand losing. I’m rather looking forward to a trip to New York.”

 

         He bared his teeth at her in displeasure, but clinked his glass to hers in cheers. His tie had been loosened and hung around his neck. Helen could see a small ball of blue light with a black swirling mass in its center. If he noticed her looking at it he made no outward sign. She lowered her voice. “Have you made any new deals with General Electric?”

 

         He gave a shrug that was too casual and hid behind his glass. “I may have a new secretary…” Helen’s eyes widened and she kicked his foot.

 

         “When’s your plane leaving tomorrow?” He asked.

 

         “First thing in the morning.” She saw him pout, his leg tossed carelessly over another as he regarded her through hooded eyes.

 

         “Mine isn’t leaving until six in the evening. I can drop you off in Old City along the way.”

 

         Helen sighed, setting down her empty glass and rubbing her arms for warmth. The night air coming in from the open windows were picking up a chill. “Work, Nikola – you do remember you have some to attend to as well?”

 

         He sighed impatiently, one hand tracing lazy circles in the air. “We’re in _Rome_ , Helen, that screams breakfast in a café, a trip to the great library, and secretly breaking into the catacombs. Again.” He grinned on the last remark. “Who knows, maybe we’ll find Da Vinci’s secret cache this time.”

 

         Helen bit her lip and tried to hide a rueful smile. The last thing she needed was for him to see how tempting the idea was or else he’d never let it go. But this little trip had already cost her too much time away from her current project in Old City. The liaison from Hollow Earth was arriving tomorrow so punctuality was key. Knowing Ranna’s prickly, pedantic nature, it was best to err on the side of caution.

 

         She kissed him lightly on the cheek, ducking just in time as he tried to pull the same trick on her again, and made her goodbyes to the other Heads of Houses still up.

 

         The moment Helen left the room a tall man settled into the seat beside Nikola’s. Onryuji, Head of Tokyo, propped his sunglasses into his hair, a milky film passing across his slit eyes as he blinked. “You want the transfer of the shadow naga?”

 

         “I only need one sexually mature female. I’ll send someone to pick it up. And you wanted?”

 

         Onryuji tapped a delicate finger against his glass of sake. “I want one of your technicians to upgrade my systems to what New York is operating on. I also want a deal with Lighthouse for new robotic surgical arms in my lab – your best rate.”

 

         Nikola couldn’t help but grin into his glass. “See, you… _you_ actually appreciate innovation and what I do. It’s so refreshing.”

 

         Onryuji merely shrugged, the expression on his face not changing a hair as he said, “I understand New York has also refurbished their main laboratory with modifications my team has designed and patented.”

 

         Nikola arched an eyebrow at him, the incredibly sharp abnormal still regarding him mildly, and finally laughed. They clinked their glasses together, Onryuji holding up his on Nikola’s prompting so Nikola could better appreciate the aroma of the sake.

 

         “Doctor Magnus…” Onryuji began, trailing off as he considered how best to word his next remark. Nikola’s curiosity was piqued instantly, tempered with a dark feeling that he knew where this was going.

 

         “…has requested my assistance and Tokyo’s resources for something. A project, which while I was flattered to be considered, seemed more appropriate for New York’s supervision.”

 

         Nikola’s hand instinctively went to the collar of his shirt, obscuring what nested against his clavicle. Onryuji had the good grace to pretend as if he hadn’t noticed and continued. “Is this a matter that requires Tokyo’s involvement?”

 

         Nikola knew what his gut reaction was, but forced himself to slow down and consider the larger picture. He was running a Sanctuary now, he was in a world where the game held a more political flavour than he normally had the patience for…but that was the challenge that had attracted him in the first place, wasn’t it?

 

         “Go ahead, give your teams my blessings. Let’s do an exchange, send me one of your designers and I’ll send you one of mine. Any new patents that come out of this, we’ll publish and sign off on together.”

 

         Onryuji smiled ever so slightly, the film flicking across his eyes. “You don’t anticipate us succeeding…but you think the failed prototypes will be more valuable anyway.”

 

         Nikola leaned forward slightly. “Fifty-fifty deal, a New York and Tokyo partnership.”

 

         Another pause, the Tokyo abnormal was bafflingly unreadable to Nikola, and then Onryuji finally raised his glass of sake. Nikola similarly raised his glass, and the deal stood.

 

         He’d have to remind Helen he could take care of himself. Nikola eased around the small orb the elemental was contained in, shifting it to the palm of his hand and experimentally testing the shield’s walls. He could have three million volts of electricity pass through his body and the elemental would be safe. He could be in a coma and his shield would still hold. Only death could break this cage.

 

         They were all safer this way.

 

***

 

         Helen sipped her cup of tea as her computer chirped happily and turned on. She had a dozen messages waiting for her, and she quickly skimmed through them as her private plane took off the airstrip in Rome. She glanced out of the window and wistfully wondered if she could see the café Nikola was having his breakfast glass of wine in.

 

         Actually, she could, though it was a mere speck to her. Nikola had chosen this particular spot because it overlooked the sea. South America had hade him rather fond of waterside cafes.

 

         His latest acquisition from General Electric had already made it to the New York Sanctuary. He sent through the order of the fifty thousand to Miller in a show of good faith. Obviously, Miller must have finally seen the value in having his own personal spy in Nikola’s workhouse. Nikola had been counting on it.

 

         “Doctor Manhattan?”

 

         Nikola looked up briefly and gestured for the man to sit down. “Funny name, isn’t it?”

 

         Nikola blinked once. “It suits me.”

 

         The man passed over a manila folder, which Nikola slipped into his briefcase. “And for that, we get the city planning contracts.”

 

         “Yes, yes, I’ve already spoken to the mayor’s office.”

 

         The man was insistent. “Complete discretion and immunity.”

 

         Nikola looked the man up and down, a dangerous smirk on his face. “Well, that seems to come part and parcel every time I deal with your family. Send my regards to your father, unless someone’s already decided they want to be the new Don.”

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

TWO

***

 

         “Y-Yes, Doctor Tesla.” The boy was still a nervous wreck, trying to adjust to his sudden change in surroundings. The phone began to ring and Nikola gave Raymond a pointed look. He picked up the phone. “New York Sanctuary.”

 

         Nikola mouthed, “I’m not here,” and left Raymond, wide-eyed, as he tried to understand the garbled message on the other line. Nikola had a rule, no calls from foreign delegates before noon. Crazy Russian bastards.

 

         “Doctor Tesla, the field team is briefed and ready on your word.”

 

         Nikola walked briskly to the main laboratory, speaking into his portable tablet. “Tell them that they’re free to go once the communication feed is established.”

 

         Nikola seated himself in the main laboratory and a half-circle ring of monitors lowered from the ceiling and turned on. A few of his assistants were stationed at different computers and he keyed in a command on his tablet. Live feeds from his field team appeared on the large arena of screens.

 

         “Doctor, we’re now in the sewers beneath Penn station.” The man who spoke, tall, brunette, military background, had already established himself as the ersatz leader of any field operation. What was his name? Shepherd? Sherborn? Sherman?

 

         “Have fun with the mole people,” Nikola commented dryly. Whatever the case being, he was a hothead who liked rules, being strict and being in charge. The little blonde on the team practically salivated every time she was near him, and Nikola was sure she’d offered him her adoration in more than a few ways. So long as they didn’t do it on paid time…

 

         “Do you think they’re bio-luminescent? How else do they see down there?” Jessica Kelly, the blonde, was yammering away again as they trekked deeper into New York’s abandoned service tunnels.

 

         “They use _headlamps_.” That would be Ubuntu, mild empathy that had transferred from the Lagos Sanctuary five years ago. His lack of patience for fools made him the only one Nikola would freely admit he liked.

 

         “Children, play nicely…” Nikola sighed into his microphone. “What will the Underground Delegates think of us if you show up to the meeting bickering?”

 

         “Did the mole people actually build the subway tunnels, doc?” Kelly, again.

 

         “Long story. And if you call them mole people to their face, Kelly, you’re fired.”

 

         Kelly stuck her tongue into the camera’s receiver. “You wouldn’t. You like me too much.”

 

         Even Ubuntu laughed at that. She punched him on the shoulder and continued. “You’ll never admit it, doc, but you think I’m funny. And you know I’m smart.”

 

         Sherman, it was definitely Sherman, scoffed at that. “You?”

 

         “I used to be a scientist – I isolated the protein in cancer cells, army of one.”

 

         Of course, Nikola would never admit it, and even on pain of death would never acknowledge it aloud, but the group of idiots were starting to grow on him. They had their uses.

 

         “We’re getting close,” Ubuntu said in his deep voice, sensing other life forms nearby.

 

         “Remember what I said about being on your best behaviour,” Nikola growled. “We need them to sign this treaty.”

 

         “Jesus, what the hell is that?” Sherman’s feed suddenly flipped upside down, shaking badly. Nikola could hear gunfire and the feeds were cutting through with static.

 

         “Mike? Mike!” He heard Kelly yelling, and the sound of more gunfire.

 

         “Don’t you morons know what would happen if you hit a pressurized tank down there? _Stop firing._ ” Nikola looked helplessly at the screens, snow obliterating the images as he heard chaos and pandemonium on the other line.

 

         “We’ve managed to reconnect to Ubuntu’s feed, sir.”

 

         One of the screens flickered back to life and in the dank, dark tunnel Nikola saw something moving in the shadows. It was quick, darting to and from cover, and Nikola hit the freeze frame.

 

         “Good gods…” he breathed, as he saw what had attacked his team. “It’s real…”

 

         Six pairs of eyes glowed in the dark. Three rats with their tails knotted together, with a swarm of their brethren crawling out from behind them.

 

         “There’s a rat king down there…”

 

***

 

         “Jessica’s fine. Mike sustained a shallow wound on his head. A scout team from the Underground base found us and managed to help us out.”

 

         “Is the rat king an abnormal then, or some fluke?”

 

         Ubuntu was sitting on an overturned garbage can, Underground dwellers (or “mole people”) scurrying behind him in the background. “It’s an abnormal alright. It has a psychic link with the other rats, creates a hive mind.”

 

         Nikola growled, biting back his frustration. “There’s no _way_ the Underground didn’t know they exist. They’ve probably dealt with them every day. Why didn’t they tell us?”

 

         Ubuntu shrugged. “They’re a suspicious, secretive breed.”

 

         Nikola frowned in concentration, absently tapping the surface of his desk with a finer. “Do you think there are any more of them?”

 

         Ubuntu raised an eyebrow, immediately suspecting something. “Well…we don’t know for sure unless we look, but my hunch is there are a few kings and several super-colonies that compete for territory and food.”

 

         Nikola nodded casually, trying to hide his piqued interest, but it was almost as if Ubuntu could read him through the live feed. “You want to catch one, don’t you?”

 

         “I didn’t say anything—“

 

         “It would need its colony with it to bring out its psychic abilities.”

 

         Nikola still tried to keep an innocent look on his face. “Well, a Sanctuary has to accommodate to all needs.”

 

         Ubuntu was not amused. “That’s in excess of a thousand rats. Where the hell would we keep them?”

 

         “We’ve got a big basement.”

 

         Ubuntu immediately cut the communication feed, leaving Nikola with blank screens. He huffed and crossed his arms. What was the point of Headship if your underlings wouldn’t do as they were told?

 

***

 

         “Doctor Tesla—“

 

         “Busy.” Tesla held up a dismissive hand at Raymond, who was rushing behind and trying to catch up with him in the hall. He was carrying armfuls of paperwork and mail.

 

         “But Doctor – your signature’s needed-“

 

         Nikola didn’t slow his pace. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

 

         “And you’ve had calls-“

 

         “I’m in demand.” Nikola smirked.

 

         “-I got death threats from some of them…”

 

         Nikola halted suddenly, Raymond bumping into his back and dropping some of his papers. Nikola whirled round to face him, livid. “ _What?_ ”

 

         Raymond, harassed, tried to gather all of his fly-away documents, fumbling in his efforts. “They said you were sure to take their call, and when I said you weren’t in, they threatened to burn the Sanctuary to the ground.”

 

         “Did he have a Russian accent?”

 

         Raymond blinked, confused. “No…”

 

         Nikola paled. “You _idiot_. That’s call to send me!” Nikola rushed back to the direction of his office. Raymond was even more confused and disoriented by the encounter then it had helped clarify anything.

 

         “So a Russian threatening you is okay, but not an American?”

 

         Nikola shot back over his shoulder, “It was an American, _your predecessor_ , that destroyed my livelihood. The Russians just gave me alcohol poisoning.”

 

         Raymond looked back to the mess of papers on the floor and saw a perky, smiling blonde similarly crouched and gathering them together. He felt a rush of gratitude towards the first friendly face he’d seen since he’d arrived in New York.

 

         “He’s lying, he can’t get drunk. Doc’s a vampire.”

 

         Raymond blinked, unsure if he’d just heard what she said correctly. His heart sank as it became clear to him that no one was normal in this nuthouse. “Vampire?”

 

         She handed him his papers. “There’s a machine in his office that copies his signature. Use that for everything except stuff sent by the UN, US Congress and anything from another Head.” She clapped him on the shoulder. “Hang in there!”

 

         He looked despondently at the work ahead of him and the cheery greeting seemed more like a cruel joke.

 

***

 

         Nikola looked up briefly when Kelly walked into his office, and quickly muffled the receiver with his hand. “Don’t you knock?”

 

         She rolled her eyes at him, and he barked down the phone, “I want those zoning restrictions lifted or you don’t get my money. That’s simple, isn’t it? Call me again once that sinks in.” He slammed down the receiver with more force than necessary, his hand recoiling away from the phone as if it were covered in slime. He hated, _hated_ using the telephone.

 

         “How’s your boyfriend?” Nikola asked casually, wiping his hand on a cloth square as Kelly went as red as a cherry.

 

         “ _Not_ my boyfriend.”

 

         “Kelly,” Nikola waved off her next protest, “Give me and Ubuntu a break. The rampant hormones and sexual tension hurt the people around you. Get the inevitable disappointment over with so we can move on with our lives.”

 

         Kelly opened her mouth like she was about to say something then snapped it shut. She slapped a binder of papers into his chest. “Peace treaty with the Underground Dwellers. We’re allowed into their territory without being harassed so long as we don’t take anything, and we work with their scout teams on security detail.”

 

         Nikola flicked through the treaty and winked at her. “See? A little professionalism goes a long way.”

 

         “Is it true we’re hosting the network meeting?”

 

         Nikola’s smile immediately slid off his face, suspicious of her hopeful excitement. “Yes.”

 

         Kelly’s face lit up as Nikola’s sank to the floor. “That’s great! We’ll get to see _everyone_.”

 

         Nikola massaged the bridge of his nose. “The global Sanctuary network hosts over a hundred thousand people – no, you will not get to see ‘everyone’.”

 

         “We have to spruce the place up.”

 

         “ _No._ ” Nikola pointed a warning finger at her. “What you have to do is tell Helen Magnus what a great boss I am to work for. Or at least how smart I am.”

 

         Kelly gave her most sober look and said, “But Helen Magnus is way smarter than you.”

 

         There was a crash as Kelly dodged the book he flung at her head and ran laughing from the office. Raymond nearly jumped at the commotion, and then cringed when he heard the all-too familiar, “Edison, _wine_.”

 

***

 

         Nikola sat curled up in his sitting chair, a glass of wine in his hand and a medical text on abnormals across his lap. The window beside him was open and the night air had chilled his skin, but he didn’t notice and wouldn’t have cared. Vampires didn’t need much heat.

 

         His rooms were on the third floor (third door to the right) and he had arranged them so they looked exactly like his old suite at the Waldorf. That was the last time he had needed permanent rooms so it as the first thing that sprang to mind in terms of comfort and familiarity. His only alteration was to have a larger desk, littered with little trinkets and gutted devices for him to tinker away with at night.

 

         He didn’t even need the bed. It became a mountain of books and empty wine bottles. He was sure there was someone in New York allocated to cleaning, but they had clearly lost any hope for his quarters.

 

         It took Nikola moment to realize he was being distracted from what he was reading on the page because of a rhythmic beeping. He looked over to his desk and realized his tablet was blinking.

 

         Crossing the room in the span of a heartbeat, he saw that his tablet was displaying an alarm. Something had attempted to breach the EM shields. Curious, rather than anxious, Nikola made his way to the main foyer. A few people were already down there, blinking sleepily in their pyjamas (and holding powerful stunners).

 

         Nikola cracked his neck, ready to transform at any second, opened the door and found John Druitt crumpled on his doorstep.

 

         “Help me…old boy…”

 

***

 

         It was three in the morning and the last thing Nikola needed was the rest of the Sanctuary to wake up and panic. He ushered people back to bed, grabbed Ubuntu and Kelly, and they hauled Druitt to the infirmary.

 

         “Shit, that’s Jack the Ripper!” Sherman, who had been confined to the infirmary for another day, dropped the book he had been reading, startled.

 

         Nikola put a finger to his lips, annoyed. “Shh, you’ll wake up the other patients.”

 

         Sherman looked around him in confusion. “I’m the only patient here.”

 

         “Exactly, and you should be sleeping. So button it.”

 

         They laid John onto a bed, who was slipping in and out of consciousness. Kelly, having a medical background, had already stripped open his shirt and placed sensor pads on his chest. When she flicked on the vital stats monitor they found his heart rate to be erratic.

 

         “Druitt, wake up.” Nikola snapped his fingers by Druitt’s ear, but the man was still off in his own little world. “Druitt, _wake up_.”

 

         Nikola pressed a finger to Druitt’s shoulder and a small spark of electricity leapt from one man to the other. Druitt’s eyes snapped open and he regained full alertness with a curse.

 

         “Of all the _bloody_ —“

 

         Nikola cut him off. “What’s wrong with you? Why are you taking up space in my infirmary?”

 

         Druitt’s face suddenly darkened and Nikola could see it was taking all of the man’s effort to look him steadily in the eye. Nikola looked up at Kelly and Ubuntu. “Scram.”

 

         “But we can help—“ Nikola glared at Kelly until she snapped her mouth shut. She looked like she was quite ready to verbally spar with him, but Ubuntu sensed the gravitas in John’s arrival and took her by the arm. Nikola slammed the curtain shut and walled off Sherman.

 

         “You need source blood.”

 

         Jon coughed weakly into his chest, eyes still blazing from the embarrassment of showing any vulnerability. He had taken a risk coming to Nikola, and he wasn’t sure if the vampire would show mercy or use this as a bargaining chip.

 

         Nikola similarly was buzzing through the million different implications this encounter could bring. He paced by John’s bedside, finally stopped and asked outright, “Why haven’t you gone to Helen?  I wouldn’t think she’d turn you away.”

 

         “Are you going to help me or not?” John snapped in frustration.

 

         Nikola rolled up his sleeve, fumbled around in the supplies cabinet, and deftly injected himself with a sample vial. He drew three vials of blood in total and hooked them up to John’s arm. “My blood good enough for you now?” He quipped as he blotted the wound on his arm.

 

         “I’m tired of owing her,” John said quietly. “Doesn’t it get tiring when she says you need her help and you keep proving her right? Besides, I don’t like putting her in a position where she can’t turn me away.”

 

         “I thought being English you were used to forced civility.”

 

         John winced slightly as he flexed his arm, now shockingly sore. “I must be tired of it if I’m speaking to you.”

 

         Nikola dumped the used needles into the biohazard bin and furiously washed his hands. “What did she use before – wasn’t it a serum that replicated the source blood? Why doesn’t it work now?”

 

         “I suspect because it was created from her blood alone and not the original source blood itself. The serum can’t keep up and modify along with all the natural mutations of the body, especially with our accelerated physiology.”

 

         Nikola frowned in thought, tapping a finger to his temple. “But make the serum from two blood sources and you give it the little ‘oomf’ it needs to continuously mutate and create new strands along with the body. Two different genetic strands to draw all the diversity it needs from.”

 

         John looked pained when he finally asked, “So you’ll do it?”

 

         Nikola grinned. “It’ll be fun trying to take some of Helen’s blood without her noticing. Maybe a little nibble while she’s asleep…”

 

         The apoplectic look on John’s face was exactly as Nikola had hoped. It was worth having to wrestle Druitt back onto the infirmary bed.

 

***

 

         Raymond looked nervously to the office door, quickly keying in the access code to Tesla’s office computer that he had stolen off of Kelly, the blonde girl. He half-expected to meet a firewall and was mildly surprised when the New York Sanctuary database opened.

 

 _Active Operatives._

 _Jessica Kelly: Field Operative. Human._

 _Former biochemical engineer recruited from the CDC._

 _Training at Quantico (never completed)._

 _Notes from Head: Annoying, but useful._

 _Network records: Grozny 1 year. New York 3 years._

 _Lt. Col. Michael Sherman: Field Operative. Human._

 _Former Navy SEAL recruited after US military Operation Wendigo (Dune harpies in Iraq)._

 _Notes from Head: G.I. Jackoff._

 _Network records: New York 2 years._

 _Ubuntu Braganza: Field Operative. Abnormal._

 _Mild Empath: life form sensing/emotional states radius 25ft. No ability to manipulate._

 _Recruitment peace treaty with Zundu tribe (Uganda)._

 _Network records: Lagos 7 years. New York 5 years._

 _-RECORD OF SUBORDINATION to former Head Terence Wexford. Network Hearing: ACQUITED-_

         Raymond flicked through the rest of the archives to find most of the former field operatives had transferred to other Sanctuaries in the network, and a few were labeled as Deceased. One record jumped out at him for which he could find no further information.

 

 _Aureliano: Special Operative. Abnormal._

 _DECOMISSIONED. ALL INFORMATION SENSITIVE AND CLASSIFIED._

He would need Tesla’s personal access codes for that information. Speaking of…

 

 _Nikola Tesla: Head of House. Abnormal._

 _Member of the Five/Original Source Blood. Last known member of species Sanguine Vampirus._

 _Known Aliases: CLASSIFIED._

 _Known Operations: CLASSIFIED._

 _Special Characteristics: CLASSIFIED._

 _Hey Sonny, quite while you’re ahead. You don’t want to piss me off anymore with your incompetence._

Raymond blinked and then realized he was reading text that was being typed live.

 

 _Tell daddy I said hi._

Raymond looked to the office door and saw Nikola standing there with a portable tablet in his hands. Nikola smiled, the points of his fangs showing. Raymond looked back to the screen and saw a new message.

 

 _Oh noes?_

He quickly got up from his chair, desperately thinking of an excuse for why he was going through Sanctuary files, but could think of none. Nikola still had the dangerous little smirk on his face. “Edison…”

 

         “Wine, sir?”

 

         “Good. You’re learning.”

 

***

 

         When Druitt came to it was to find himself lying on a bed in an infirmary. He half-expected to find himself restrained with leather straps, but was surprisingly spared the indignity. He felt much better…normal, even. The scare of his body shutting down was over.

 

         He looked over and saw another man in the bed next to his, staring rather shamelessly. When Sherman noticed John was awake he had the good grace to look away.

 

         “See something you like?” John growled lowly, a smirk on his face.

 

         Sherman looked down at his hands, feeling distinctly uncomfortable. “I, uh…I have a friend who works with Interpol. She was on the case of the Ripper copycat murder here in New York a year back.”

 

         John felt his heart sink into a vat of ice. “Interrogating me isn’t going to be any fun. For once, I don’t know anything about it.”

 

         “I know, I know,” Sherman quickly stammered. “It’s just…hell, you were _the_ bogeyman when I was a kid. I never knew you were real…”

 

         “Don’t inflate his sense of importance, it’s a habit we’re trying to break him of.”

 

         John looked up to Nikola, who had just entered the room, and sneered. “Oh, you’re one to talk about ego.”

 

         Nikola threw him a full hanger of clothes and looked pointedly at them. “Put those on. You can be tall, bald and ugly, but in a nice suit while you stay under _my_ roof.”

 

         John rolled his eyes, sitting up and looking askance at the clothing. “You’ll never let that go…and why do I need formal wear?”

 

         “Because the full network meeting is in half an hour and the Heads of Houses will be showing up at any moment.”

 

         John’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. “Helen is coming _here?_ When were you going to inform me?”

 

         Nikola shrugged. “I am now, aren’t I?”

 

         John pushed the suit away from him. “Like hell I’m sticking around for this.”

 

         “But Johnny, old boy, how else will I present you as my latest acquisition?”

 

         “Your _WHAT_?”

 

         Nikola could see the veins bulging in John’s throat and face and had to fight to keep down a snigger. In his calmest and most matter-of-fact voice he said, “You’re an abnormal in need and you came to my Sanctuary. I’m going to petition for your refugee status and you’ll become a resident of New York. You obviously can’t move about freely outside these walls, you’re a wanted man.”

 

         Nikola added as an afterthought as John struggle to his feet, “Oh – and the EM shields at New York are always on full strength.”

 

         Nikola’s head smacked against the wall as John’s hand tightened around his throat. He felt his teeth rattle in his jaw, but he still laughed in Druitt’s face. John suddenly noticed the small orb nestled in Nikola’s clavicle. The elemental.

 

         The grip around Nikola’s throat loosened. John’s eyes had narrowed into slits. He muttered darkly, “Can’t even have the satisfaction of killing you anymore.”

 

         Nikola massaged his tender throat and gasped, “Checkmate.”


	3. Chapter 3

THREE

***

 

         Kate whistled appreciatively. “Nice floor tiles.”

 

         Helen rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me started.” Nikola had ripped up the old flooring at New York to install patterned tiles that followed mathematical algorithms of the power of three. It had cost nearly half his budget for the quarter. And the bastard had still managed to improve daily functions and abnormal research by two hundred percent.

 

         “Doctor Magnus.”

 

         “Ubuntu!” Helen quickly hugged the tall, regal looking man who strode over to them. “It is bloody good to see you again.”

 

         He smiled briefly at her. “We’re still waiting on the delegates from Cairo, but everyone else is in the conference room. Will you be having breakfast?”

 

         Helen pursed her lips. “Does Nikola still have his ban on tea in place?”

 

         Ubuntu mock whispered into her ear. “I’ve managed to keep a private store.” He smiled, paused, gave Kate an odd look and then walked away.

 

         Kate frowned. “What was that about?”

 

         “Were you thinking anything inappropriate about him? Helen asked casually.

 

         Kate blushed, “No!”

 

         Helen smiled and patted Kate’s arm. “Ubuntu’s an empathy, but even I could see you giving him the glad eye. Come on, let’s go collect Henry.”

 

         “I bet Will’s still pissed he had to miss this trip.”

 

         They pushed open the large doors that led to the conference hall, already buzzing with chatter. Henry was already inside chatting excitedly with Erika. It had been a while since they last had an opportunity to see each other in person. She saw Nikola over at the far side of the room going over some documents with Onryuji. Mildly puzzling.

 

         “Helen, how was your flight?” Declan pushed an illegal cup of tea into her hands with a secretive wink.

 

         “Oh, thank you.” She took the tea, her eyes scanning the room for unfamiliar faces. New operatives from Russia and Norway. She’d have to make her acquaintances.

 

         Declan lowered his voice. “Think he’ll behave this time?”

 

         Helen arched an eyebrow. “He will if he knows what’s best for him. I can still fire him.”

 

***

         “We’ve successfully bred them in captivity. Once they reach sexual maturity they will be released back into the conservation areas and hopefully this will restore the balance of the desert ecosystem.”

 

         Helen glanced beside her and noticed Nikola was a few minutes away from falling asleep. She kicked his foot under the table and glared at him.

 

         “That is wonderful news, Pili,” Helen said. “Are you still having issue with the black market trade of eggs?”

 

         Pili, the Head of Cairo Sanctuary, nodded briefly. “Some. We’ve managed to secure arrangements with local Bedouin tribes and have been receiving guerilla assistance.”

 

         “You should alert the authorities. Get the military to strike the base of trade.”

 

         Pili looked over at Sherman scandalized. “Do you know what would happen if we involved the local military and gave them carte blanche, Mr. Sherman?”

 

         “Yeah, they’d do their _job_ —“

 

         Nikola raised a finger to his lips. “Hey junior – down, boy. The grownups are talking.”

 

         Sherman looked as if he were about to say something further, but wisely bit his tongue. Moodily, he sank back into his chair. Kate gave Henry a knowing look and mimed shooting herself in the head.

 

         Helen gave them a quick, stern look and went back to Pili. “Thank you. I trust Cairo has nothing further to report. Shall we move on to New Delhi?”

 

         Vikram, also a recent appointment to Headship, leant forward as if he had been waiting the entire meeting to voice his concerns. “ _Yes_. We have been receiving disturbing reports of abnormal migration patterns that fall completely out of the norm. It doesn’t follow breeding, habitat changes, feeding cycles, _anything._ ”

 

         Helen was mildly disturbed. “Is it concentrated to species? Geographical area?”

 

         “No, we can’t find any links.”

 

         Onryuji lifted a delicate finger. “We have observed the same thing in Japan.”

 

         “And in Nigeria, the Congo and Mozambique.”

 

         The room was beginning to fall into disorder and Helen quickly cut off the barrage of excited chatter. “What other Sanctuaries have noted this?”

 

         Several Heads raised their hands, and several others didn’t. Helen was baffled by the results. India, Africa (but not Egypt), Japan – but not China, Norway, isolated pockets of Germany, Russia not at all, some parts of Canada, and South America not at all…

 

         “Nikola, have you noticed anything like this in New York?”

 

         Nikola was glib and merely shrugged. “Nope, we just have rats. Big rats.” He gestured unhelpfully with his hands.

 

         “Will you take this a little more seriously?” She hissed. “While this may just be an aberrant occurrence, it could also have very serious implications.”

 

         “Do you want all the Sanctuary research teams on it then?” He replied.

 

         Helen was taken aback. “No…that can be at the discretion of the individual Sanctuaries affected.”

 

         “Then I have two words for you, Helen.” He flashed her that mad bastard’s grin. “Lighten up.”

 

         Helen smiled sweetly at him and forced through grit teeth, “You’re making me seriously regret giving you this appointment.”

 

         “But it’s really starting to grow on me.” Nikola then looked at Vikram and called out, “Your concerns are noted. Moving on.” Nikola ignored the angry look on Vikram’s face and pushed forward. “New York has an issue that needs Head approval concerning refugee resident status for a dangerous abnormal.”

 

         The Heads looked mildly stunned. Declan spoke up, “I haven’t heard of the discovery of any new abnormal that would fall into that category.”

 

         Helen looked pointedly at Nikola. “Neither have I…”

 

         Nikola pressed his hands together, his fingers steepled under his chin. “He is an abnormal that would be considered dangerous by all charter standards. He has taken human lives, and is a prime target by all International agencies to be terminated or weaponized. Definitely not an abnormal we want falling into the wrong hands.”

 

         Doctor Pang (the granddaughter of the former Head of Beijing) asked, “What sort of residency status are you proposing? Does the abnormal require secure containment?”

 

         “No,” Nikola had adopted a very serious, business-like tone that made Helen uneasy. “But he requires Sanctuary protection. He should have free mobility within the network.”

         Alina Belkov, Head of Grozny, narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Is he a threat to the network?”

 

         Nikola thought about that. “I shouldn’t think so…unless you pissed him off.” He saw the alarmed looks on their faces and hastily continued. “He has aided the Sanctuary network in the past. New York will host his residency and act as a guarantor. I will hold personal responsibility and vouch for him, but as an international threat it does require a majority vote from the Heads for me to do so.”

 

         Kate’s eyes suddenly widened and she whispered so only Henry could hear, “Oh my god…I know who he’s talking about.”

 

         Helen was getting annoyed by all the evasive tactics and cut in. “ _Who_ are you proposing as your new resident?”

 

         Nikola avoided her gaze and looked to the other Heads instead. “Montague John Druitt.”

 

         The room grew instantly silent, and if Helen weren’t seated she would have rocked back on her heels. Nikola saw that he commanded full attention of the room and continued. “He has unofficially been harboured by the Network for many, _many_ years. I do think it’s about time we took responsibility for him in an official sense.”

 

         Helen finally managed to splutter, “John? You’re talking about _John?_ ”

 

         Nikola finally looked to her, a mild expression on his face. “Do we really want to keep a potentially ruinous situation like that outside of our direct jurisdiction where we can actually exert some form of control?”

 

         Helen was still in shock, reeling, and she grabbed Nikola’s arm. She pulled him closer to her where she could hiss into his ear without being heard. “If this is your idea as some kind of game you have gone _too far_. What are you thinking to play with peoples’ lives like this?”

 

         He quietly muttered, “Why do _you_ not want to give Johnny public sanctuary?”

 

         “Why do you? And that is _not_ the point—“

 

         Nikola raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it?” He turned to face the rest of the group. “Well? Where do we stand on the matter? The charter makes our options quite clear…we either grant Sanctuary or terminate the abnormal.”

 

         Helen went pale as a ghost, and she could feel all eyes on her. The other Heads looked distinctly uncomfortable. They didn’t want to put Helen in such a position, but they also agreed with Nikola’s reasoning.

 

         Nikola looked to Helen. “We’ve let the matter wait for too long, Helen. Either we adopt Druitt or we disavow him and give all agencies carte blanche to kill him.”

 

         Declan hurriedly raised his voice to spare Helen. “I think we’re all clear on the details, Doctor Tesla. If we can commence voting, I’m in favour of Residency.”

 

         The other Heads quickly voted in favour of Residency, unable to meet Helen’s eyes as they did so. When Nikola looked to her for an answer she quickly choked out, “Residency” before she was on the butt end of anymore snide remarks. “Meeting adjourned,” she said, getting up from her chair and storming out of the room.

 

***

 

         Kate sidled in next to Henry and passed him a can of soda. “That meeting was…interesting.” Everyone had retired to the large sitting room for brunch and a meet and greet. Everyone was also trying to push past the awkward meeting, and Helen and Nikola were nowhere to be seen.

 

         Kate looked to Henry, who had been quiet the whole time, and nudged him. “Earth to Hank. What’s gotten into you?”

 

         “N-Nothing,” He stammered. Kate narrowed her eyes as she watched him squirm.

 

         “ _Spill_.”

 

         Henry passed her a piece of paper he had folded up into his pocket. “Tesla slipped this to me during the meeting.”

 

         Kate snorted as she unfolded the paper. “What is it? A love note – holy shit.” She looked up at Henry with wide eyes. “Is this for real?”

 

         Henry nodded. “Yup. A contract to transfer to New York’s technical development and application team. For twice what I get paid right now.”

 

         Kate handed him back the contract. “Wow…I guess we can call shenanigans on all the times Tesla called you worthless.” She suddenly grew quiet. “Are you…gonna go over?”

 

         Henry wrung his hands together. “No…maybe – no, definitely no. I don’t know. Probably not? I don’t think right now is the time to bring it up either – I would not want to be the man to give Doc an excuse to go vamp hunting right about now.”

 

         “Would you really want to work for Doctor Spooky?”

 

         Henry moaned. “Maybe not him, but the _lab_ here…and the pay grade – I could afford to fly to London or fly Erika to New York every week if I wanted to.”

 

         Kate sighed and patted him mockingly on the back. “First world problems, Hank.”

 

***

 

         Nikola poked his head around the rooftop door and quickly ducked behind it again when a bullet zipped his way. Three more thudded into the door and he yelled, “You’re scaring my pigeons!”

 

         He heard the click of the safety being turned back on and deemed it safe to emerge from the door. His head snapped back as Helen clocked him under the jaw instead, her eyes raw and furious.

 

         “ _Why_ , Nikola – why would you do something like that?”

 

         Nikola swayed on his feet, gripping the door for support. “One moment, dear – I think you’ve dislocated my jaw.”

 

         She rounded on him again, infuriated. “You did this deliberately behind my back, you made me look like a fool…you used that entire room as a means to manipulate my and my feelings – to what end? Is this really some other petty way to get my attention? Or grandstand me – _undermine me_?”

 

         Nikola grabbed her by the arms and shook her gently. “Helen, do you trust me?”

 

         “You’ve got some bloody cheek to ask me—“

 

         He looked at her, she could tell earnestly, and repeated, “Do you trust me?”

 

         Helen forced herself to calm down, and eyed him warily. “Yes…should I be regretting that?”

 

         He let go of her and walked over to his pigeon coop. It was more like a small open shed the birds were allowed to fly freely in. He gestured for her to come inside and sit on the bench in the middle, closing the small wooden door behind them.

 

         “John’s protection was a problem that had been left for far too long. Without the Sanctuary’s acknowledgement of him he could have been scooped up by any black ops force or fringe agency and used as a weapon, not a person.”

 

         Helen sighed heavily, rubbing her eyes. “I _know_ that, and you could have told me this.”

 

         “For you to ultimately decide it was your responsibility and take full charge of the situation. One, that would have really pissed off old Johnny to have to officially answer to you—“

 

         Helen gaped. “And since when were you concerned with what John thinks?”

 

         “And two,” Nikola furrowed his brow at her for interrupting, “That would have compromised your authority. Again. The other Heads have already come close to a vote of no confidence in you because of your compromised feelings towards John – or so how they perceive. If you knew about this beforehand, they could have still seen it as you having a hand in this. To see it was done entirely without your foreknowledge, and even to some extent without your approval…”

 

         Helen sighed, this time wearily. “…if anything does come up no fingers get pointed at me as I’ve completely washed my hands of the matter.”

 

         Nikola gave a small smirk. “And even if you do try to get involved, Helen – you can’t. The matter is completely within my domain now.”

 

         Helen muttered unhappily. “You’re an ass.”

 

         Nikola grinned. “And a damn useful one. You know, I was still mildly disappointed when you didn’t vote for termination.”

 

         She punched him in the shoulder.

 

***

 

         “Helen.”

 

         “John.”

 

         Ubuntu grabbed Kelly’s arm and dragged her away from the rooftop door with a stern, “no eavesdropping.” He shut the door so Doctor Magnus and Druitt could have their conversation in private. It seemed they had a lot of troubled ground to cover.

 

         Kelly pouted at him. “I was _not_ eavesdropping.”

 

         Ubuntu blinked slowly at her. “You’re lying.”

 

         “How would you know?”

 

         “I’m an empathy.”

 

         Kelly sighed, there was no argument that could stand up to that. “Why exactly are we going on a night mission?”

 

         “Doctor Tesla thinks it will be a good idea for us to work with the Old City team…get a feel for their methods.”

 

         Kelly shrugged; it made sense. “So what’s the icebreaker activity?”

 

         “Giant crocs.”

 

         Kelly groaned.

 

***

 

         “Sonofa _bitch_.” Kate smacked the butt of her gun against her palm. It had jammed. Again. The dampness of the sewers was not working in her favour.

 

         “You guys are just too gun crazy,” Kelly yelled over the din. Dodging a swipe from the giant croc’s claws.

 

         “And all you do is rely on your gizmos that don’t work half the time!” Kate yelled back, furiously swapping out her pistol for a stunner.

 

         Kelly looked back at Kate incredulously. “I am _not_ the one who pissed it off by shooting it in the nose!”

 

         “Ladies,” Henry called out, “Can we cool it and tranq the sucker now? Jimmy is not slowing down.”

 

         Kate and Kelly both glared at him and yelled, “You named it _Jimmy?_ ”

 

***

 

         “Newton. Franklin. Einsten. Hawkins.”

 

         Helen pointed at a pigeon with a bent wing. “Oh, he’s crippled.”

 

         Nikola glanced up briefly. “And that’s Marconi.”

 

         John laughed. “I don’t want to know what happened to Edison then.” He held up his empty glass and Nikola poured him another measure of brandy.

 

         Nikola walked to the edge of the roof and reached up for a cable looped around a lightning rod. A spark leapt from his finger and glass spheres stationed around the roof shone with a bright white light. He experimented with dimming the bulbs until they were all bathed in a soft pool of light.

 

         “You don’t have to run anymore,” Helen murmured softly to John. There was still an air of discomfort and awkwardness, but they both tried to ignore it.

 

         John snorted. “I’d rather be shot by firing squad then be indentured to him.”

 

         “I’ll remember that,” Nikola commented dryly. “The bounty for you dead or alive is enough to fund my labs for a year.”

 

         Helen rolled her eyes. “And you would have that money if you hadn’t spent it on floor tiling.”

 

         Nikola pulled a wry smile. “I like keeping a nice house.”

 

         “They’ve made an old woman of you,” John chuckled darkly. Nikola bared his teeth at him with a displeased growl.

 

         “I think I’ll excuse myself and spare myself anymore of this childish bickering.” Helen rose from her seat. “And remember, Nikola – this was all _your_ idea.” She laughed as she exited from the coop and made her way down from the rooftop.

 

         They heard the rooftop door shut, and John reached for the decanter of brandy. “I think the only way I can remain civil around you is drunk.”

 

         Nikola noticed something twinkling by John’s neck, the hint of a chain. His eyes followed down to the locket swinging from it…the locket was open. A picture of Helen, back at Oxford, and a small portrait of Ashley too.

 

         Nikola looked away quickly, but it was too late. John had already noticed what Nikola was staring at. He regarded the vampire, his benevolent jailor for now, with cool, knowing eyes.

 

         “You’re a masochist, Nikola.”

 

         “What do you mean?” Nikola murmured quietly, resolutely looking away from John.

 

         “I’m here as a constant reminder to you…a small scar still healing, itching, irritating to the very bone…” John sipped his brandy carefully, trying to puzzle out the man sitting across from him. “Why ever have you decided to chain yourself to me?”

 

         When Nikola refused to answer, John rose to his feet as well, making his way out of the coop. “You’ll drive yourself mad, old boy.”

 

         Nikola sat alone, save for the pigeons fluttering above him.

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

FOUR

***

 

         “Stop fidgeting, Kelly.”

 

         She glared at Nikola and hissed under her breath, “You try having a prototype Geiger counter stuffed in your bra!”

 

         His eyes flicked to her chest, then back up at her eyes and the infuriatingly amused smile never left his lips. Affecting an innocent look he pointed at himself. “Well I’m certainly not equipped for the task. Now, shh.” He held an imperious finger to his lips. “Go ogle some jewelry.”

 

         Kelly grumbled under her breath as they entered the store and she plastered a simpering smile on her face. She plastically gushed alongside the proprietor as he showed her his wares, shooting death glares at Nikola when the man’s back was turned.

 

         “I’m a scientist, not a mule!” She hissed at him through pained, grinning teeth.

 

         “Has it gone off yet?”

 

         She shot him a quick glare before reverting back to girly blonde for the jeweler. “Can’t you feel it going off if you clench your sphinc-“

 

         “Perhaps the gentleman would prefer a matching set?” The jeweler brought forth disgustingly tacky matching necklaces and rings for couples. Nikola shot Kelly a warning look because he could tell she was close to cracking into a storm of giggles.

 

         The smile left her for a moment and she glanced somewhere to her left and Nikola realized the counter had gone off. His eyes flickered over to the side display case.

 

         “Come here, _honey_.” He took her by the arm and steered her over to the counter, carefully watching where her eyes went. He noticed the jeweler hesitated before following them.

 

         She ran her fingers over the glass where a brooch lay, nestled in velvet. Nikola could hear the man’s heart beat faster, could smell the sweat beginning to form on his brow. He pointed to the necklace beside the brooch and muttered, “What do you think of that?”

 

         He could see the jeweler relaxing and eagerly bringing forth the necklace and gesturing for Kelly to try it on. Amidst the distraction Nikola sneaked a better look at the brooch. Silver, diamonds, with a large pearl-like stone in the center. He doubted the jeweler quite knew what he possessed or else he wouldn’t have put it on display…but perhaps he was on instructions not to sell it…or only to sell it to a specific person.

 

         “Oh, I love it. Can I have it, _honey? Please?_ ” Kelly batted her eyelashes at him obnoxiously as she twirled with the gold and amethyst chain around her neck. He could see her relishing the sour look on his face as she playfully wheedled him further. “Don’t you think it goes with my hair?”

 

         The jeweler was almost crying with sycophant paroxysms of delight and Nikola glanced over to the price tag on the case. A thunderous look crashed onto his face and Kelly was struggling now not to laugh out loud. She hit him playfully with her handbag. “Oh come on, darling – don’t you love me?”

 

         “Of course…darling.” He mustered through clenched teeth and grudgingly reached for his credit card.

 

         Kelly laughed mercilessly at him as they walked back to the Sanctuary, gleefully pulling the Geiger counter from her shirt, ignoring the scandalized look on his face. “Can I keep it?”

 

         “Absolutely not.”

 

         “ _Please_ , Doc? How many of these sketchy missions have I helped you out with now?”

 

         Nikola shook his head. “Nope.”

 

         Kelly pouted. “You already paid for it! It’s not like we can go back and return it…and it’s not like you’re going to wear it.”

 

         “Fine. I’ll take it out of your wages.”

 

         “No, you won’t.” Kelly was glaring at him dangerously now. “I’ll tell Doctor Magnus.”

 

         Nikola’s jaw dropped and worked furiously. “ _I’m_ your boss!”

 

         “And she’s your boss.”

 

         “Helen Magnus is _not_ my boss.”

 

         Kelly looked at him and saw the uncomfortable shuffling and knew she had won. She jostled him playfully. “Cheer up, Doc. I’ll buy you lunch.”

 

         Nikola moodily shoved his hands into his pockets. “You know I don’t eat.”

 

         She gave him a knowing look. “You don’t need to…but even you like bacon cheeseburgers.”

 

         Nikola mumbled into his tie, “who doesn’t like bacon?” and Kelly steered him towards the Sanctuary’s favourite food stand as a way to assuage his bruised pride and credit limit.

 

***

 

         “So is that the rock?”

 

         Nikola glanced up from checking the reading on the counter and said, “Chew with your mouth closed.” He then held up the counter to reveal _2.2. RADS_.

 

         Kelly’s eyes widened. “So it _is_ a mineral from Hollow Earth.”

 

         “Yes…and somehow they’re finding their way back up to the surface.” Nikola took a sip of his coffee, crumpling up the empty wrapper in his free hand and tossing it into a garbage can. “And someone is very keen to track them all down…”

 

         Kelly raised an eyebrow, ignoring Nikola’s previous comment and speaking around a mouthful of cheese and bacon. “Does this mean we’re pulling a heist?”

 

         Nikola gave her a rare look of utter seriousness. He lowered his voice so their conversation was masked by the bustle of the streets around them. “No, we are not. You let me take care of that.” By the look on his face she knew not to argue and focused on cramming the last bits of beef, bun and pickle in her mouth.

 

         “It is really disgusting watching you eat.”

 

         She shrugged and mumbled, “only human”. She swallowed with tremendous effort and did that thing only Kelly could get away with – ask a tactless question. “Are you going to use Druitt?”

 

         Nikola raised an eyebrow, giving her a look that she took to understand that he would answer her truthfully this time but it would be the last question she was allowed. “No. John is still under observation to see which of the source blood treatments work best for him. Besides…would you want to tell a serial killer what to do?”

 

         Kelly frowned at him, similarly balling up her burger wrapper and tossing it aside. “You already told him ‘stay put’ and ‘wear a suit’.”

 

         Nikola sighed heavily, placing dark glasses on his face with a smirk. “Someone has to champion culture.”

 

***

 

         The jeweler, one Azif Madi, only felt a cool hand snake across his mouth and nose, a whispered “good night”, before he felt darkness overtaking his vision and fell to the ground. A pale man with almost white-blonde hair eased his descent to the floor and made sure his head rested gently before moving into the front of the store.

 

         The moon was shining in the sky, though the windows of the store had been blocked with sliding metal barricades for the night. The pale man made his way to the display case and entered in the security code for the lock.

 

         Easing open the glass, he took out the brooch, scanning it with a small device from his pocket. Once the last of the green light faded away, he pried the stone off with a sharp knife and placed in a small chip before resealing the brooch. Replacing it, he closed the case, reset the locks and slunk away.

 

***

 

         John’s face remained impassive as the last of the drips was taken from his arm, despite the facts that his veins were swollen and the crook of his arm was already swelling with bruises. Nikola fastidiously wrapped the dirty needles in their packaging and dropped them into the biohazard waste container.

 

         “Your bedside manner is still appalling,” John drawled.

 

         “Did you want a lollipop after your check up?” Nikola tossed him some cotton gauze, and John dabbed the spilt drops of blood from his arm. He bent his arm and flexed his fingers experimentally.

 

         Nikola’s nose tweaked at the smell of John’s blood…source blood DNA. He felt an inexplicable hunger curl somewhere in his stomach and began to scrub his hands under a hot tap to distract himself. He was glad that John couldn’t see his hands shake.

 

         “Have you taken down that EM shield yet?”

 

         Nikola, distracted, took a moment before he realized John was speaking to him. He covered his start and blinked, momentarily nonplused. “No.”

 

         John sighed and tossed away the stained gauze with a growl. “You’re really intent on keeping a leash on me?”

 

         For a moment there was a horrible twisting in Nikola’s gut and he wanted to laugh in John’s face. To make no reassurances to his freedom at all and keep him in the prison; even if they had to be miserable together. But the moment passed and quietly he said, “I’m working on creating a shield for you that will allow you to interrupt our EM signal so you can teleport in and out. But the tricky part is localizing the spike so you don’t disarm the entire Sanctuary.”

 

         John seemed genuinely surprised that this consideration was actually being worked on and looked a little sheepish. To cover his silence, he asked, “How long?”

 

         Nikola sighed as he dried his hands. “I’m going to get the wolf mutt to take a look at it. No one here seems to be able to compensate for the spectral shift of the data burst.”

 

         “You can’t?”

 

         Nikola had to fight down the urge to strangle John (bite him…watch him bleed) and said pleasantly, “I’m far too busy to concern myself with something so trivial.”

 

         John gave a hollow laugh and rolled his eyes. “Oh yes, you’re top of the playground now.”

 

         “That’s right…and you just kissed that lollipop goodbye.” Nikola gave him his most insincere smile and a mock bow as he left.

 

***

 

         “I’m afraid I don’t have the authority to sanction that kind of request-“

 

         Helen bit back a frustrated sigh. There was that Praxian love of red tape again. Something in her face must have given her away, however, as Ranna’s attitude softened.

 

         “You misunderstand me, Helen. I genuinely have no authority in these matters. I do not call the avatar council and they do not respond to my requests. It is only their prerogative to summon a meeting.”

 

         “And you can think of no super-abnormal that would fit my description?”

 

         Ranna shook her head. “Nothing in Hollow Earth.”

 

         Helen rested her head in her hand, thinking. “Is it possible that there are other beings like the avatars…separate perhaps, unknown even to the council?”

 

         Ranna stiffened slightly. It was as if Helen were asking her to say there were other gods. “The unknown and unexplained are your areas of expertise, Doctor Magnus, not mine.”

 

         Fair enough, Helen thought, as the video screen went blank. Bloody bureaucrats…

 

         “And presto.” Will came in and placed a very fat dossier on her desk. “All the organizations that have some sort of Abnormal agenda in South America.”

 

         “Most of them criminal?” Helen asked with an arched eyebrow as she leafed through the pages.

 

         Will gave an emphatic “oh yeah”.

 

         “Well, cut the head of a snake-“

 

         “-it’s probably an abnormal snake and it will grow three more.” Will gave her a rueful smile, then pointed meaningfully to the dossier. “You can’t overturn an entire network, let alone the dozens running around on a continent.”

 

         Helen tutted disapprovingly. “It’s wonders what a ‘can-do’ attitude accomplishes, Will. But I’m on the defensive side this time. Vuarez would have had supporters with a lot of money and clout. I think it would be naive of us to think that the removal of one scientist, one facility, will deter them from their agenda.”

 

         “You think they’ll attack the network again?”

 

         “Or sabotage us somehow.” Helen looked around the walls of her office. “And I don’t really fancy having my lab blown up again.”

 

***

 

         Nikola felt the wind tease and play with his hair as he looked down at New York City below him. From this vantage point he could see the geometric grid of the streets, almost like the lines on an old face.

 

         There – there was the Waldorf where he had spent so many years.

 

         There was Edison’s workhouse.

 

         There, that speck, that was where his first workhouse was.

 

         There was the spot where the old music hall used to be when he danced with Helen.

 

         That corner of Central Park where he had skipped a night of work and shared a bottle of wine with her under the stars.

 

         He felt his pigeons flapping and fluttering around him. They had been living here long enough to imprint this as their home. They could fly all the way out of Manhattan if they wanted to, but the magnetic receptors in their beaks key to their sense of navigation would allow them to read the earths’ electromagnetic field and guide them back here, almost as if a target were painted on their coop.

 

         Despite the shared qualities between him and the birds (which made him love them so much), he still often felt surprised at having found his way back to New York after all these years.

 

***

 

         “…I’m telling you it’s madness.”

 

         Ubuntu paused outside Doctor Tesla’s office, the team’s weekly reports in one hand. He sensed two life forms in the room, one distinctly the Doctor’s, and another he had never come across before. He was struck by the sensation of something so very, very old…even more so than the Doctor.

 

         They seemed to be in a hushed argument when he heard the unknown voice say, “Ahh, but I hear someone waiting for you outside.” There was the scraping of a chair and then silence.

 

         The door swung open and as Ubuntu suspected, Doctor Tesla was now alone. “The reports and follow up relations with the Underground Brotherhood.”

 

         Tesla pursed his lips. “Did they say anything after we mentioned the rat king?”

 

         “Only that we should proceed with caution.”

 

         Tesla bared his teeth in annoyance, the tips of his canines pointed. Ubuntu looked at him a little more carefully and slowly asked, “Are you all right, Doctor?”

 

         Tesla looked at him. Was he scared? A little surprised? Wholly indifferent, cautious, expecting? The swirl of emotions was difficult to unknot and Ubuntu couldn’t receive a clear impression.

 

         Nikola took the reports from him, eyeing him just as thoughtfully. “I need my medication refilled. Would you find Edison and let him know?”

 

         Ubuntu nodded and strode off purposefully to oversee the task. While he could receive no clear reading from that exchange as he usually could, there was an unmistakable underlying tone of danger that he could not place.

 

         Nikola closed the door to his office, sighing heavily and sitting down at his desk. The light on his tablet was blinking…it seemed always to be blinking these days. He accepted the call and watched as a young man’s face appeared on a live video feed.

 

         “Doctor Manhattan.”

 

         Nikola narrowed his eyes. “You’re heading the coastal op?”

 

         “Indeed I am,” He said cheerfully.

 

         “You look like you’re still in high-school.”

 

         He gave Nikola cheeky wink. “And you don’t look a day over forty.”

 

         “Thirty-five.” Nikola tapped a finger to his lips and then muttered, “You’re an abnormal too.”

 

         The man nodded. “Shed my skin every seven years. Anyway, just a call to let you know we received the delivery on our end and are preparing your shipments as we speak.”

 

         Nikola nodded, he could see the rest of the warehouse behind the man’s shoulders. Forklifts, men backing up trucks, all sorts of firearms being packed into crates…

 

         “All unregistered with ballistics that can’t be traced back to any known manufacturer.”

 

         Nikola steepled his fingers under his chin. “When am I to expect them?”

 

         “Eighteen hours, sixteen minutes and-“ He looked down at his watch. “-forty seconds.”

 

         Nikola smirked. “Oh, I like you.”

 

         The man smiled back, gave him a nod and a “pleasure” and ended the call.

 

***

 

         Raymond eased a crick at the base of his neck before returning to shelving the rest of the bottles away into the cellar. He had learned enough of Tesla’s oddities at this point that he knew if the wine wasn’t catalogued correctly he’d get an earful.

 

         Raymond heard a scrap by the door and felt the tips of his ears burn in annoyance. It was that Mike Sherman, the ex-army nut. He’d taken to keeping an annoyingly close eye on Raymond as if hoping to catch him in the act of corporate espionage. Or giving him annoyingly dire looks as if to say “I’m watching you”.

 

         Raymond felt something inside him snap. Expectations from either side, here or back at General Electric, were suffocating. He couldn’t do anything. There was no way he could smuggle out any kind of information, Tesla had turned the New York Sanctuary into a digital fortress. And he knew it…the Doctor was quietly laughing at him and parading around tantalizing corporate secrets all the time.

 

         The goading from his father was worse. Why had he sent Raymond here in the first place? Every time they spoke it was as if he expected his son to fail anyway.

 

         “Did you come down here to help stack bottles?” Raymond snapped, turning around to face the door. Sure enough it was Sherman standing there, a mild look of surprise on his face. Raymond seethed, bitterly muttering. “As if there’s anything confidential down in the wine cellar.”

 

         Sherman strode over to him and Raymond winced, tensing up. He was going to get thrown around or yelled at, he knew it…but Sherman walked over to a small cooler in the corner and opened the door. He tossed Raymond a can of beer, cracking one open himself.

 

         “These are for us,” he said before leaving the cellar.

 

         Startled, still clinging onto the cold can, Raymond sneezed in the dusty cellar.

 

***

 

         “There, that should do the trick.”

 

         John fastened the metal brace onto his wrist and glared at Nikola. “ _Should_ do?”

 

         Nikola shrugged. “Just try it!”

 

         “And if it’s faulty? What – I’ll teleport and explode into a burst of energy and matter?”

 

         Nikola shook an admonishing finger at Druitt. “Why would I try to kill you? If that doesn’t work you won’t be able to teleport at all.”

 

         John glared at him suspiciously, his fingers nervously playing with the modified shield, but then he disappeared in a flash of orange light. Nikola could feel the air in the main foyer shift and saw Druitt appear ten feet behind him. Even he couldn’t completely mask the relief on his face as John walked back over.

 

         “I guess it works,” John admitted grudgingly.

 

         “You _guess_ it works? Of course it works, I designed it!”

 

         John looked to the heavens pleadingly. “Oh, spare me.”

 

         Nikola folded his arms across his chest, a shrewd expression on his face. “So, you’re free to go anywhere you want. Where does Johnny most want to fly away to?”

 

         John looked uncomfortable, just as Nikola had guessed. The obvious answer would have been to Old City, but there was nothing for John to do there. His ability to leap through great distances was almost in constant use so he couldn’t be captured, but now he did not have to run anymore and he didn’t know what to do with himself.

 

         Nikola let him squirm a little longer and then took pity on him. “Well, wherever you’re planning, you can run an errand for me while you stretch your legs.” Nikola handed him a phone with a map and a blinking dot. “There’s a trace running on this. I want you to track the movement of the package. Let me know where it ends up.”

 

         Wordlessly, John took the phone and vanished into thin air, though Nikola was sure he saw the ghost of a wink as John left.

 


	5. Chapter 5

[-](http://sanctuaryfiction.net/viewstory.php?sid=1124&chapter=5&textsize=-1) **Text Size** [+](http://sanctuaryfiction.net/viewstory.php?sid=1124&chapter=5&textsize=1)

FIVE

***

 

         “He’s requested a thirty percent budget increase. Cheeky.”

 

         Helen smiled at the sour look on Declan’s face as they sorted through network documents. The new quarter was approaching and a global network had a vast amount of ‘i’s to dot and ‘t’s to cross.

 

         Helen sighed. “Loathe as I am to admit it, he qualifies for the incentive of only having re-established New York last year. It lasts eighteen months.”

 

         Declan snorted. “Does he need new drapes as well?” He muttered as he sifted through the rest of the New York logs. “A couple network transfers…Kyle Rider from New York to Tokyo, and Tak Fujimoto now in New York. And one pending transfer…” Declan’s eyebrows shot up. “Henry Foss.”

 

         “What?” The look of shock on Helen’s face immediately clued Declan into that she had no prior knowledge of this. He tilted the monitor her way so she could see for herself.

 

         There were the bald terms of a new contract, a substantial pay-raise, and a request for an immediate response…all authorized by the New York Head specifically. Helen felt her blood simmer.

 

         “He couldn’t possibly have the nerve.”

 

         Declan looked apologetic but murmured, “Couldn’t he?”

 

         Helen rose quickly to her feet. “If you could excuse me a moment, Delcan. I have to have a word with him.”

 

***

 

         “That’s interfering – that’s abusing your power to restrict your employees from making their own decisions!”

 

         Helen’s mouth hung open in incredulity. She was a woman rarely rendered speechless, but Nikola had a special brand of cheek and gall that always crept under her skin. Before he could pummel through another idiotic defense, she roared, “Nikola, you _ass_!”

 

         She didn’t realize she had slammed her hand down on her desk until she saw her screen shake. “You sneaky, underhanded, obnoxious _ass_ – you have no right to try and steal my team right from under my nose!”

 

         He huffed and rolled his eyes at her. “It’s not like I kidnapped him, Helen, you’re overreacting.”

 

         “Maybe so.” Her voice was dangerously silky now as she hissed at the screen. “But if you think I’m giving your Sanctuary funds so you can buy out and bribe my employees then you can kiss that budget increase goodbye.”

 

         She saw the furious look on his face before he petulantly crooned, “I’d make it a kiss it’d never forget. The kind that ruins it for anyone else-“

 

         Helen gave him a mirthless smirk. “Oh, Nikola…we both know that’s my secret weapon.” She saw the look of surprise on his face through the sulking entitlement and closed her laptop before she could hear anymore.

 

         Determined to still have the last word, her phone chirped a second later with a text from him that read, ‘hanging up is NOT classy’.

 

***

 

         “Edison.”

 

         Raymond plunked the bottle of wine on Nikola’s desk before any further prompting and Nikola didn’t even look up at the boy as he uncorked it with his teeth.

 

         “I need tomorrow off.” Nikola looked up then, an eyebrow raised. It was rare the Edison spawn said anything to him at all, let alone make a request.

 

         Raymond squirmed under Nikola’s expectant gaze, and blurted out, “I-It’s a family matter.”

 

         Nikola’s eyebrow raised even higher and Raymond went pink when he realized how that sounded. Nikola poured out a glass of wine and decided to spare him more embarrassed spluttering. “Someone die?”

 

         “Y-Yes…my uncle.”

 

         Still without looking away from the orders he was signing, Nikola said, “You can take the week off.”

 

         Raymond looked up from his glass, stunned. “Really?”

 

         Nikola finally looked up to fix him with a glare, as if to tell him off for wasting time. Raymond couldn’t help himself and burst out, “But I could be lying!”

 

         “Yes, you could.” Nikola went back to scrawling his signature on various forms. “But you’ll find you only lie to a vampire once. Now, go feed the pigeons.”

 

         Raymond bolted out of the room, disarmed by the unexpected leniency.

 

***

 

         John checked the phone and then switched it off before returning it to his pocket. He was standing outside what appeared to be a large office building. There were a few people standing outside smoking, others making their way into the revolving doors…normally John would have just walked in, but he saw they all had ID cards and were being checked at the security desk.

 

         He was debating whether or not to stride in anyway with the excuse that he had an appointment, when he heard someone behind him whisper in his ear, “Be silent”.

 

         John had a hand on his knife as he turned around and a pale hand clutched his. “Don’t draw that, they might see!” He was met with a pair of black eyes, like drops of oil.

 

         To cover his shock, he dryly said, “Still alive, I see.”

 

         Aureliano released his hand, taking the sunglasses perched on top of his long, white-blond hair and placing them over his eyes. He gestured to the phone in John’s pocket. “You’ll want to take the battery out of that. It’s emitting a signal unique to the New York Sanctuary that their sensors may pick up.”

 

         John looked at him suspiciously for a moment before doing as he was told. “I thought you weren’t working for Nikola anymore.”

 

         “I’m not. Technically. And certainly not for this.” Aureliano looked up to the tall building, his jaw setting into a firm line. “But this reaches further than the blood demon’s schemes at the moment and I’ve been keeping an eye on that package’s movement. I’m more surprised you’ve agreed to help him on this.”

 

         John ignored the subtle jab at his pride for the moment. “What is Nikola planning?”

 

         Aureliano’s face remained impassive save for a small, enigmatic smile. He reached into his pocket and brought out a white card. “This will open a door at the side that leads to the basement. Come on.”

 

         They walked quickly together to the side entrance, ignoring any passing looks from the employees. “Do you know who has the package then?”

 

         “Not yet,” Aureliano said softly as he swiped the card against the door’s reader and they heard the lock click open. “But it emits a low dose of radiation I can detect.”

 

         “And if we get caught? Even you can’t hide from bullets.”

 

         Aureliano shrugged as they navigated through the basement’s narrow halls. “Could always do what we did in Beijing.”

 

         John snorted. “Jump out the window?”

 

         Aureliano grinned in a flash of white, pointed teeth. “Make sure you catch me.”

 

***

 

         Henry looked sheepish as he worked, his head hanging a little lower than usual. Magnus hadn’t said a word against him for the departmental transfer. She thought he was blameless and instead stormed off to give Nikola an earful, but Henry made sure not to complain once when she asked him to help go through New York’s logs.

 

         New York seemed to have gained a few new departments since Tesla had taken over and spread between them they had leeched a substantial amount of the quarterly budget. They had vague names like “Practical Applications” and “Abnormal Expansion” and he couldn’t find many records for them.

 

         Puzzled, Henry picked up the phone and dialed the extension for the department office, only to hear an operator telling him the number didn’t exist.

 

         Henry felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle slightly…something was fishy, and when it came to Tesla, it was better to assume the worst.

 

         Henry drew up the department codes and ran a search for all files related within the database to find himself locked out. None of his or Magnus’ overrides worked, and when he pulled up Tesla’s overrides he found those had been changed as well.

 

         “Thought you could use this.” Kate suddenly dropped into the chair beside him with an energy drink in her hand, stifling a yawn. “It’s already one in the morning, you know.”

 

         Henry was barely paying any attention to her, still staring dumbfounded at the screen.

 

         “Hank?”

 

         “Is Doc still up? I think she needs to see this.” Henry turned the monitor towards Kate. “New York’s hidden money away into fortified sectors that the rest of the Sanctuary network is locked out of. Including Magnus.”

 

         “Can they do that? I thought you wrote all the programming.”

 

         Henry looked somber. “Tesla could.”

 

***

 

         “I know your first instinct is to confront him-“

 

         “-wring his scrawny neck-“

 

         Declan paused, trying not to smile and just barely managing. “But he doesn’t think he’s doing anything untoward. It’s probably funding for some of his own personal projects.”

 

         Helen frowned. “But I’ve given him the freedom to develop his own ideas within the Sanctuary. There’s already a patent design and technical development team.”

 

         “Yes, but…” Declan smirked a little now. “…he always needs to have one over on us. Let’s play this close to the chest for now. If it is a matter we’ll need to know more about, the fastest way to be kept in the dark is to let him know we’re on to him.”

 

         Helen sighed, but nodded in agreement. “Stanton on your team is ex-MI5, yes? See if he can’t find a way to keep a trace on what Nikola does with the new budget this quarter.”

 

         Declan smiled and gave her a playful salute. “Will do, Doctor.”

 

***

 

         John surreptitiously opened the manila folder on the desk and glanced down at the title of the report inside before rejoining Aureliano as they entered the stairwell.

 

         “It seems like a firm for corporate law…business interests…what on earth they want with Praxian ore is beyond me.”

 

         Aureliano said nothing as they briskly climbed down several flights of stairs, silently searching for evidence of any surveillance cameras. Should they dawdle or meander in their pace they would have stood out more than striding off as if there was somewhere they needed to be.

 

         “You know…you know what’s doing on, don’t you?” John couldn’t help but feel slightly annoyed. It was still unnerving to feel as if Aureliano viewed him as an old tree would an insect. Being over a hundred years old made one feel invincible and above the common cut. He sometimes forgot there were abnormals who had millennia over him.

 

         “I know more than you, but not as much as you’d think.”

 

         “Should we remove the mineral?”

 

         Aureliano paused, checking to make sure the hallway was clear. “No. I think we’ve exhausted all we can of this place. This will be a long hunt.”

 

         They moved quickly towards the staircase that would lead them back down to the basement when a large security guard rounded a corner and stopped in front of them. “ID.”

 

         John tensed slightly as, smoothly, Aureliano took out the access card and handed it to the guard. In the split second the guard glanced away from them, Aureliano struck him under the nose with the heel of his palm. John rushed around, grabbing the guard from behind and Aureliano grasped the man’s face. Silver mist began to bleed from the guard’s nose, and after a few tense moments of struggle the man dropped unconscious to the floor.

 

         Aureliano stood up and straightened, cracking his knuckles. John hissed at him. “What are you waiting for?”

 

         “I’m considering killing him.”

 

         John looked stunned and could only think to ask, “Why?”

 

         “He’s seen our faces. I’d prefer we not leave traces of ourselves behind.”

 

         John grabbed his arm, tugging. “The cameras have already seen this all. We need to go now!”

 

         Just as they began to sprint, sirens began to sound in the hall. They managed to find the exit, John wrenching the door open as they stumbled outside. There were men swarming behind them and he could hear the electric crackle of stun guns. Knowing they were in serious trouble if one of those darts hit home, John grabbed Aureliano’s arm again. The second they managed to round a corner and break visibility, he teleported them away.

 

         They swayed slightly on their feet as they re-materialized in an alleyway near the New York Sanctuary. Aureliano gratefully leant against the wall. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.”

 

         John turned on the phone and saw the tracking signal was, thankfully, still active. “They’ll move it to another location soon, now that they know this one isn’t safe.” He let out a long, held in breath. “What do we do from here?”

 

         “We keep following them.” Aureliano looked interestedly at the GPS coordinates of the signal. “The recover of the mineral is not important or the blood demon would have told you so. Instead, we discover who wants it, who is buying, the lines of communication they are using, their associates…and soon we shall know exactly why they want it.”

 

         John turned off the phone again and stowed it away into his pocket. He was still unsure of the pale man’s motives and regarded him uneasily. “I thought you didn’t want to help Nikola in this.”

 

         Aureliano bared his teeth in what could have been a smile. “I am not doing this for him. But if you’re worried, I am not going to stop or hinder you. Our goals, for now, are the same.”

 

         John finally came to the real reason there was a knot in his gut, as ironic as it seemed to him that it should upset him. “You were going to kill that man.”

 

         Aureliano looked indulgent, which irked John mildly. “There was a time you would have as well.”

 

         “I am _not_ the Ripper anymore.”

 

         Aureliano clasped his hands together, still cool as a breeze. “But I am. There are too many missing persons in my trail of work that I cannot be associated with the Sanctuary anymore. That also makes me invaluable to them. This, you must still understand.”

 

         John nodded uneasily as the pale man bowed to him and disappeared into the crowded streets.

 

***

 

         “…Simon Miller was a good father, and will be greatly missed by his daughters…”

 

         Raymond felt a hand on his shoulder and a quiet, “Do you want to say something?” He resolutely shook his head ‘no’.

 

         His father, Miller Sr., had managed to corner him away from most of the family. Raymond tended to keep to himself, but was now regretting turning down his cousin Emily’s offer to sit beside her. “We haven’t heard from you in a month. We were getting worried, son.”

 

         Raymond felt a hollow laugh rise to his lips but wisely held it back. There must have been something defiant in the way he refused to look away from the ceremony, however, that caused his father to grip his shoulder more tightly. “We are doing all we must for our family. Family has to come first, especially now. You understand, don’t you?”

 

         Only too clearly. Raymond felt the hand on his shoulder squeeze even tighter before his father finally let go. He then felt something press into his hand. “Take this.”

 

         Raymond looked down and saw a smooth black device in his hand. It looked like a remote control, though only with two buttons. He knew immediately what it was and cringed inwardly as his father gruffly hugged him and walked back over to the group of cousins.

 

         Raymond slipped it into his pocket, though he had an overwhelming urge to chuck it into the open grave. This device would discreetly track all of the signal patterns of New York’s wireless network. This device would eventually hack the Sanctuary database. This device…if Tesla ever found on his person, could mean his sudden disappearance.

 

***

 

         Nikola felt the glass shatter in his hand and it was with dull surprise that he looked down and saw the shards littering his floor and the cuts, already healing, in his palm. Shaken, he wiped his mouth and looked at the bottles littered by his feet. Seven. In an hour.

 

         He almost wished he were human enough to be drunk. Horribly, violently, room-spinning drunk…like the time he and Nigel had polished off a bottle of absinthe together when Oxford term ended. At least if he were feeling sick he’d be distracted by the gnawing in his stomach.

 

         He was _hungry_. So much so that his brain was screaming at him and he had escaped up to the roof where he couldn’t smell the many bodies inhabited in his Sanctuary, and they couldn’t see his eyes had gone black.

 

         At least up here, storey’s above the ground, he couldn’t smell the overwhelming stench of the city…sweat, dirt, smoke and blood. He flexed his fingers, gave a gentle nudge, and the small ball of swirling black and blue traveled down the length of his arm to nestle in his palm.

 

         The energy elemental raged, swirling endlessly in its tiny prison as all it could do was pace. Nikola sighed heavily. Of all the elements on earth…it’s had to be energy. Immutable…unable to destroy…only to last forever and ever in any possible form.

 

         His tablet chirped and he quickly moved the elemental back up to nestle by his throat. He saw that it was a call from Tokyo and accepted. “I’ll show you my view if you show me yours.” He held up the screen to the winking lights and skyline of New York before Onryuji did the same and he saw the breathtaking coastline of Tokyo.

 

         “We have finally secured a safe mode of transport for the blood sacs to feed your shadow naga. It will be ready to arrive in three days time with your go ahead.”

 

         Nikola picked one stray shard of glass from his finger, watching the small swell of blood before the skin sealed over. “Double the shipment.”

 

***

 

         “Ah, Doctor Magnus.” Declan made to shake her hand before she pulled him into a hug instead, ever the gentleman. “Any luck with Hollow Earth?”

 

         “No more than you, I’m afraid.” Helen smirked as Declan’s jaw stiffened for a second. The last call he had made to Praxis he had essentially been told he was a meddling schoolboy and they refused to speak to him again.

 

         “How are the interns doing?” Helen asked as they made their way to his office (James’ old office as she always thought).

 

         “Very well, they’re all eager for their placements. I thought New York, Berlin, Tokyo and Moscow were perhaps the best choices. I’ve got one chap who had his heart set on Monrovia…but I think you’ll agree we stay away from politically unstable climates.”

 

         “Oh, I don’t know, Declan. Depending on his background, Monrovia may be the best Sanctuary for someone to have the room to show initiative and made significant ground-level contributions.”

 

         A pretty young woman with dirty blonde hair waved to Declan and Helen, and he beamed and eagerly beckoned her forward. “Here’s one of our graduating interns. You wanted placement in New York or Berlin, didn’t you?” He brought her forward to introduce her to Helen. “A specialist in zoology and veterinary medicine. She was working in Madagascar on large-form mammals and reptiles. Miss Johnson, this is Doctor Magnus.”

 

         The young woman brightly shook Helen’s hand. “It’s just Katie.”

 

         Helen felt a lump form in her throat unexpectedly and forced herself to keep her voice casual. “Is that for Katherine?”

 

         The young woman shook her head. “No, Caitlin, actually. Caitlin Johnson.” She looked back to Declan with a  “got to dash” and was off again.

 

         Helen felt weak in the knees and sternly told herself to get a grip, only half-listening to Declan enthuse over the other inters ready for their first assignments. “You should send her to Berlin,” Helen said suddenly. “She’ll have more opportunity for field work there…that seems to be her interest.”

 

         “Of course.” Declan went on, not noticing how paler Helen had become or that the tips of her ears had gone bright red.


	6. Chapter 6

SIX

***

 

         Raymond hadn’t been able to sleep at all the night he finally returned to the Sanctuary. His week had been plagued with the painful comforting of his newly widowed aunt, shadowy warnings from his father, and now this smooth, black machine hidden in his pocket.

 

         He had struggled over what to do. He knew he was a pawn in all of this, and unfortunately everyone else knew it too. If he didn’t turn on the signal his father would know he had been disobeyed. But if he went that path, who could he turn to? Tesla was waiting for any opportunity to catch him spying.

 

         In a depressing way his father was right. There was nothing except for family. Raymond activated the device, stuffed it into a stray sock and shoved it into one of his drawers.

 

         It was time for the morning rounds, which meant wine for the doctor, collecting the field team’s reports and time sheets, and then answering the phones. However, this morning Tesla wasn’t sitting in his office waiting for his morning glass of wine.

 

         Raymond made his way down to the main lab to see a field mission underway and Tesla jabbering away angrily into his headset.

 

         “-a gardening show is kind of a pathetic excuse, are you sure they’ll be gone for long enough?”

 

         The ring of large screens showed each of Kelly, Sherman and Ubuntu’s feeds. Kelly snapped into her receiver, “We sent them to Long Island, even if they decided to turn back they’ll be gone for hours. I’m sure we can remove the nest by then.”

 

         Sherman hissed at her, “We need to maintain radio silence!”

 

         Raymond set the bottle down by Tesla’s elbow as he snapped at all of them for bickering.

 

         “The nest is in the attic.” Ubuntu gestured them forward to the staircase and pulled out his stunner.

 

         Kelly suddenly waved to the screen and cheerily said, “Hey, Raymond!”

 

         Nikola turned to him glaring, and muttered, “We don’t speak to the help, Kelly. The help are not people.”

 

         “We’re sure the mother hibernates during the day, even with eggs?” Sherman had his hand on the door knob, pausing in a moment’s hesitation. Before Kelly could goad him further (the idiots seemed to be hell-bent on giving Nikola a migraine this morning), Ubuntu held up an authoritative hand.

 

         “I can only sense small life forms. Seven…maybe eight. The mother isn’t here.”

 

         “Not _here_?” Sherman hissed, panic creeping into his voice.

 

         “It’s fine,” Nikola snapped, trying not to grow panicked as well. “Just get in and get out.”

 

         They could see Ubuntu’s eyes glaze over as the door to the attic swung open. He was going into a semi-meditative trance so he was more sensitive to the presence of life forms, acting as an early warning system if the mother decided to come back.

 

         “Oh god.” Kelly’s face crumpled and they could hear her trying not to retch. Thankfully, by-the-book Sherman made sure he kept an eye-level sweep of the attic so the team back at the Sanctuary had a clear visual of the situation.

 

         “They’ve hatched,” Kelly croaked as she wiped her mouth, trying to cover her nose from the stench of half-eaten rat carcasses…and what looked like the remains of some family’s dog.

 

         Seven small, white and brown furred bodies were slipping and tumbling through a puddle of mucus. Cracked, wet shells of thin eggs were littered with the carcasses and the small brood (all about the size of cats) were gently humming. There was one form, crumpled and still by one of the egg shells, and the others would sometimes croon and gently prod at it.

 

         Sherman gripped Kelly’s shoulder and cooed, “Look, Jess, little mothman babies.”

 

         Seven pairs of red eyes stared curiously back at them, expectant, as if waiting to see if their new audience was threat, prey or playmate. Sherman looked down nervously into his receiver.

 

         “Doc? What the hell do we do?”

 

         Nikola’s fingers were drumming along the top of his desk and he hadn’t blinked in over a minute. “You still have to contain them. Shift your stunners to a spectral beam and dial down the frequency.”

 

         Kelly snorted. “And do what? Carry them on the subway?”

 

         Sherman shrugged. “There are some cardboard boxes in the back of the van. We could tape them up.”

 

         Kelly was hissing angrily into her receiver now. “And the mother? What do we do about the family that lives here, sick a full grown pissed of mothman on them?”

 

         “Lepidoctera Homunculus!” Nikola fumed into his microphone, breathing heavily until he forced himself to calm down. “I’ll have the house shut down and quarantined. We’ll say there’s a pest control problem or something. Take out the young and get them back here. We’ll have to stay on watch for when mommy comes home and take her in too.”

 

         Nikola looked sharply to his side. “Edison, get over there. You’ll have to drive the van.”

 

         “ _Me_?”

 

         Ubuntu’s feed suddenly shook and tilted. Sherman ran over, grabbing him under the arm and hoisting him back up. “Hey! Hey, snap out of it!”

 

         Ubuntu’s eyes were completely unfocused and he suddenly started to make an odd crooning, humming whine deep in his throat. The newborn mothman brood shuffled together and began the strange hum as well.

 

         Kelly was pale and shrieked into her mic. “Doc, what the fuck is going on?”

 

         Nikola was on his feet, leaning forward as if he were going to leap at the screen. His eyes darted back and forth between the three screens and he finally called out, “Sherman, stun him.”

 

         Sherman’s brow knitted in a mixture of confusion and defiance. Nikola glared back, his tone more forceful and pushed, “ _Stun_ him.”

 

         Sherman finally raised his stunner and fired a blue bolt at Ubuntu, who crumpled against the wall. Nikola then flew into a whirlwind of action, grabbing his tablet, his suit jacket and gesturing at Raymond. “Come on, move!”

 

         Nikola looked back to the screens and yelled, “Keep those stunners out!” before jogging behind Raymond and pushing him rudely towards the door.

 

         They made their way to New York’s underground parking lot and Nikola tossed a set of keys to Raymond. “The black sedan, come on.”

 

         Raymond fumbled with the keys for a moment as Tesla climbed into the passenger seat. “You want me to drive?”

 

         Nikola glared at him and snapped, “I don’t drive. Now floor it.” As Raymond put the keys into ignition and buckled his seat belt, Nikola punched an address into the GPS. The doctor had never been so tense before. When he wasn’t goading Raymond into driving faster (and well beyond any legal speed limit), he was pale as a sheet, his lips clamped in thin white line.

 

         They were soon in a quiet suburban neighborhood, now perhaps only a minute or two from the house. “Have you ever fired a gun?”

 

         Raymond’s eyes widened as he did his best not to crash into mailboxes. “N-No.”

 

         “Played a videogame?” Nikola was growing impatient. “Paintball?”

 

         “Sure, I guess.”

 

         Nikola slapped a stunner into his lap. “That’s your trigger, that’s your safety. Try not to shoot anyone on the team.”

 

         The second Raymond pulled into the driveway, Nikola was tearing out the door before the car even stopped. Overwhelmed, Raymond tried to keep up, almost spinning out the car before he hastily parked. As he jogged up the stairs, following close behind Nikola, he could hear a haunting screeching, thuds and what sounded like the flapping of enormous wings.

 

         At the door to the attic, Nikola paused for a moment, his body tense. Black talons shot from his fingertips, Raymond almost dripping the stunner in shock, and with a jerk of his head Nikola’s eyes had gone black. He bust the door open and the stench of blood and rot hit Raymond like a kick in the face.

 

         An enormous beast, perhaps seven feet tall with a wingspan almost twice that, was screeching at Kelly and Sherman. Kelly’s arm was hanging limply at her side and blood was running into her eyes from a cut on her forehead. They were being bogged down by the newborn brood who were jumping, biting and scratching them. Sherman, not looking in any better shape, was trying to wrestle his stunner from the swarm.

 

         “Shoot her!” Nikola growled in an inhuman tone as he ran towards the adult, careening into her side and knocking her back. She screeched in baleful, offended tones, her winged arms scrabbling for purchase on the floor.

 

         Terrified, Raymond fired, realized his safety was still on, and fumbled with the gun. Nikola had stepped in between the adult and his team, his arms spread as if daring her to strike again. Raymond lifted his stunner again and fired. A blue bolt struck the thin membrane of her wing, causing her to stagger and red eyes shot towards his direction.

 

         Sherman was yelling, “Center mass! Center mass!” Raymond took a deep breath, trying to keep his hand steady as he aimed. Nikola shoved the adult again as she tried to leap towards Raymond, her screech grating in everyone’s ears.

 

         Raymond fired, his eyes watering through the din and mayhem, and the next bolt hit her in the stomach. She crumpled, tumbling to the corner of the attic, her large leathery wings like a folded umbrella.

 

         The newborns suddenly screeched and abandoned their assault on Kelly and Sherman, tumbling and crawling towards their mother. Raymond realized his arms were still up, though trembling violently, and he gratefully let them drop to his sides. Sherman grimly pointed his stunner at the brood and instead of a bolt, a wider ray of blue shot from the muzzle and they dropped softly to the floor. Nikola shook his head and arms and the talons disappeared.

 

         Sherman was kneeling and helping Kelly sit up, her arm still dangling at an odd angle. “You ever dislocate something before?” She nodded through grit teeth and he grasped her arm and shoulder gently. “One…two…three-“ He twisted and pushed on her arm, there was a sickening ‘crack’ and she let out a surprised “oomph” of pain.

 

         Nikola found Ubuntu’s stunned form slumped on the ground. He pulled what looked like an Epi-pen from his jacket and jabbed Ubuntu’s shoulder with it. The man started awake, disoriented and blinking sluggishly.

 

         Rising to his feet, Nikola pulled out his tablet and keyed in a code. Still getting back his breath he looked at the sorry sight around him. If there was a list of how many ways a mission could go wrong…

 

         A minute later John Druitt materialized in the room. Any snarky remark he may have had prepared for being called on vanished the second he took in his surroundings. He exchanged a look with Nikola, who nodded towards Kelly and Ubuntu. John gave him a curt nod and strode over. He helped Ubuntu to his feet, and once the man was steady, vanished them.

 

         He reappeared a moment later and took Kelly. Sherman had holstered his stunner and, though cut and bruised, still looked the most steady on his feet. Nikola looked apologetic when he asked, “Think you can drive the van?” They all trooped down the stairs and started pulling cardboard boxes from out the back.

 

         The atmosphere was distinctly sour as they worked in silence, and so as not to dwell on the awkwardness Raymond just concentrated on what had to be done. He and Sherman got all the babies into the boxes and loaded that up into the back of the van, while Tesla made calls to the city office. When it came time to move the mother Tesla injected her with more tranquilizer before they gently re-folded her wings. Somehow between the three of them they got her down the stairs and tucked into the van with the rest of the boxes.

 

         By the time they were done everyone was covered in slime, blood and the unspeakable mess that was smeared on the attic floor. Raymond picked up the still corpse of the one newborn that hadn’t survived hatching, and as he carried it to the van he couldn’t help but marvel at how soft its fur was…the curious tuft-like ears at either side of its head…

 

         “City cleaners are arriving in fifteen minutes to sterilize the attic.” Nikola looked to Sherman. “Drive safe. We’ll meet you back at the Sanctuary.”

 

         Sherman nodded and saluted half-heartedly before piling into the van with their precious cargo, bought at perhaps too high a price. Raymond opened the door to the sedan for Tesla, who he swore may have nodded in thanks, before getting into the driver’s seat.

 

         The drive back to New York was quiet and much slower than when they left. Raymond thought for a second that Tesla had gone into shell-shock. He was staring at some unknowable point out the window and sitting absolutely still, but he suddenly murmured, “Glamorous, isn’t it? Monster hunting.”

 

         Raymond made a non-committal noise and Nikola continued to stare broodingly out into nothing. Feeling like he should break up the silence somehow, Raymond asked, “What will happen to the dead one?”

 

         Nikola had a hand clamped to his cheek, still refusing to look anywhere else except at his point in space. “Autopsy. Collect tissue and fluid samples. Then it’ll go into a specimen capsule.” His voice hardened. “Not as if they make good pets anyway.”

 

         Raymond couldn’t be absolutely certain, but after working for Tesla the past months, he was sure the doctor meant none of that. He went prickly when he was upset. Raymond tried to keep his tone light. “I don’t know, it’s kind of sad. It felt more like a baby when you pick it up.”

 

         Nikola looked at him then with a curious glance, before settling back into the car seat.

 

***

 

         “Why won’t he wake up?” Kelly’s voice came out in a mild slur, and it looked as if it weren’t for the wheelchair she was in she would have melted into a puddle. Sherman was resting his elbows lightly on the handles of the chair as they all watched Ubuntu’s chest rise and fall.

 

         Nikola, freshly scrubbed and clean of all muck, hooked an IV pack to Ubuntu’s arm. “I’m not sure. The psychic link between him and the female must not have broken.”

 

         Sherman frowned. “But she’s off the tranquilizers. So are all the babies.”

 

         Nikola’s face was pinched with frustration. “I _know_.”

 

         “Lagos,” Kelly mumbled. Nikola raised an eyebrow at her. “What?”

 

         She struggled to keep her eyes open, on several heavy painkillers, but Nikola could tell this was a lucid thought. “Hyper-empaths at Lagos.”

 

         Finally today a small spark of brightness spread across Nikola’s face. He said to Sherman, “Take her back to get some sleep” and went to find John.

 

***

 

         “You’re insane.”

 

         Nikola frowned, his arms crossed against his chest. “No, Kelly’s right. A hyper-empath will be able to go in and undo whatever psychic damage-“

 

         John cut him off with an imperious hand. “Do you remember the last time I dealt with the empaths in Nigeria? I think they’d shoot me on sight if I appeared in the middle of their hallway.”

 

         Nikola blinked and finally recalled how the mentioned incident resulted in the brutal murder of one of the empaths at John’s hand back in his elemental days. He pursed his lips, trying to think of a way around this. “I’ll just have to go with you.”

 

         John gave him a look. “If you were the only person speaking in my defense I’d save myself the time and just shoot myself in the face.”

 

         “You’ve been given immunity,” Nikola snapped.

 

         “What does that matter to someone whose friend, sister, wife even - is dead?” John thundered, his hands gripping the arms of his chair. He had half-risen out of it, and had to take a moment to calm himself before he sat back down. His voice was deadly quiet as he murmured, “I can’t show my face there, you need another way. Use your plane.”

 

         “That will take too long.” Nikola knew he couldn’t push John further on the matter though. He tapped his foot on the ground and sighed in disgust as it became clear to him the only solution. “There’s one person who could go with you.”

 

         John looked guardedly at him, but was more curious. Nikola sighed heavily. “If Helen went with you it would be all right. They’ll listen to her.”

 

         A small smirk found its way onto John’s lips. “She’s certainly more polite and charming than you are.” He pointed a gleeful finger to Nikola, like a snake stirring into action as it sensed prey. “This is something Helen can do that you can’t. She’s someone Nigeria won’t say ‘no’ to you, but they’d show you the door.”

 

         Nikola glared at him and snapped, “Had enough fun yet?”

 

         “Not nearly enough. I want to see you choke as you have to explain that all to her.” John laughed at the ugly look on Nikola’s face and neatly avoided the missile thrown at his head. To spare Nikola he quickly let his chuckles subside and threw the man a knowing look. “It’s rather touching watching you debase yourself for the welfare of someone else.”

 

         Nikola pressed a hand to his chest as he affected an air of mock-poignancy. “My dear Mr. Druitt, I’m _flattered_. Now go put on some better clothing. I have to show Helen I’ve been somewhat of a good influence on you.”

 

         John rolled his eyes. “ _Truly_.”

 

***

 

         Helen took John’s hand, felt a gentle squeeze, and the world around her vanished in a swirl of orange light.

 

         It was with a brief smile and bow that he left her standing in the hallway of New York Sanctuary with Eloa beside her. Perhaps it was like the twinge of an old scar, but she couldn’t help feeling slightly ruffled by his departure. It must have been the nice suit…

 

         “We must find Ubuntu,” Eloa said, grasping Helen’s hand and feeling her way to the infirmary. Eloa’s silvery hair was tied underneath a brightly coloured headscarf. She had been Ubuntu’s mentor when he was first discovered in Uganda and she had brought him to the Lagos Sanctuary. She knew his emotional signature like the back of her hand.

 

         They ran into Nikola in the hallway, and he gestured to the room Ubuntu was in and Eloa rushed in. Despite the usual impeccable clothing, Helen could tell he was worn ragged. His collar was rumpled, his sleeves pushed up to his elbows, hair falling into his eyes and he looked as if Christmas had been cancelled. Or that New York had run out of wine. It almost made her forget how angry he had made her that week.

 

         He managed one of his trademark bastard grins for her though. “Have a nice trip with Johnny?”

 

         She ignored him and asked softly, “How’s the rest of your team?”

 

         A cloud passed briefly over his face as he said, “Fine. They’ll live.” He noted quietly the way her arms were still at her sides and she hadn’t made a move towards the infirmary. His smile was mocking, but gentle, as he said, “You’re mad at me about something.”

 

         She returned the smirk. “Yes.”

 

         “So you won’t be staying the night.”

 

         “No.”

 

         He lifted an eyebrow. “My fault?”

 

         Helen tilted her head. “Sort of.”

 

         His face settled into mask of cool politeness. “Goodnight, then.”

 

         She surprised him next by stepping forward and placing a gentle kiss beside his lips before turning, with one last enigmatic smile, and walking away. He couldn’t help but grin at that before returning to the infirmary to see what Eloa had to say about his still unconscious empath.

 

***

 

         “She’s mistaken him for her dead young, and he’s trapped in between minds.” Eloa was stroking Ubuntu’s forehead, concern knitting her brow. She rounded on Nikola angrily, “That creature is a powerful psychic being – what were you thinking sending an empath in there?”

 

         Nikola bristled from the admonishment. “This is the first time anyone from New York has encountered a mature moth for more than ten seconds, there was no way we could have known!”

 

         Eloa looked back to Ubuntu. “Well he’ll get out of it all right but it will take time. If we rush this he’ll be lost forever. Show me to the mother, I need to work with her and convince her that her young is dead.”

 

         Nikola shoved his hands into his pockets, feeling a bit like a petulant child who was in trouble with a schoolteacher. Eloa held onto his arm for support, she was very old, as he walked with her to the resident quarters. They were holding the moth and her brood in a large terrarium for now as one resembling a cave was still being built.

 

         Eloa looked to his neck and saw the ball of blue and black nestled there. She made a noise in the back of her throat; she recognized the presence there. “You can’t hold onto it forever, you know. Already it is tainting you.”

 

         Nikola stiffened slightly and tried to keep his voice casual. “It can’t escape, it’s fine where it is.”

 

         Eloa gave an amused snort and her eyes seemed to pierce right through him. “The beast in there has woken from its dormancy. It is struggling to go back to its familiar home. It is arousing the monster in you, knowing that is its only chance for an ally.”

 

         Nikola felt his lips tightening. “I’m not interesting enough to be a monster.”

 

         Eloa just laughed and shook a hand at him. “You’ve already realized everything I’m telling you now, I won’t waste my breath.” They were finally in front of the terrarium where the moth was sleeping, her wings curled protectively around her young. Eloa sat down on the ground in front of the glass and closed her eyes, beginning a meditative trance.

 

         Nikola backed away and then left the room as quickly as possible, glad to be away from the old woman who could read emotion like words.


	7. Chapter 7

SEVEN

***

 

         The only constant sound in the infirmary room was the gentle click and hiss of the vital signs monitor and the tubes helping Ubuntu breathe. It was sometimes interrupted by the low strains of a hummed song as Eloa stroked his forehead, coaxing him to remember Uganda, remember who he was.

 

         Kelly, finally off the painkillers and looking hung over, stood by the doorway with a frown on her face. When Nikola was alone with his routine check up on Ubuntu she followed him into his office. “Mike and I have been talking and we both agree on something.”

 

         Nikola arched an eyebrow. “Miracles do happen.”

 

         Kelly glared at him briefly before continuing. “Ubuntu’s going to be out for three weeks. We can’t do any field missions with just two of us and you can’t halt field operations for that time. We have that co-op with the Underground Brotherhood coming up.”

 

         Nikola said nothing as they walked down the twisting hallways of New York, even though Kelly was looking at him expectantly for an answer. Seeing he wasn’t going to offer any brilliant insight she sighed and said, “You need to hire a new field op or bring one out of decommission. We were thinking Aureliano-“

 

         “-you can’t use him.”

 

         Kelly’s eyebrows shot up. “Okay…or we were thinking Tak from down in the lab. He’s run field for Tokyo before.”

 

         Nikola stopped in front of his office door and turned to Kelly. “I’ll take care of it.”

 

         She still had the puzzled, suspicious look on her face as if she were wondering if she could actually believe he was taking her seriously. He shooed her away and she finally left, flashing him a warning “I’m watching you” gesture.

 

         Nikola sat down at his desk where Edison was already filing reports. The boy brought over the morning bottle of wine but before picking it up, Nikola rummaged through his desk drawers and slapped a leaflet on his desk. “Sign this.”

 

         Raymond picked it up curiously. “Contract of Internal Transfer? What is this?”

 

         Nikola handed him a pen before uncorking the bottle and bringing out a second glass. “You’ve been promoted. Mazel Tov.” He poured wine for the both of them and angled a glass towards Raymond.

 

         Raymond continued reading through the contract and his eyebrows sot up. “You want _me_ to be a field operative?”

 

         Nikola sipped from his glass, waving a lazy finger at the papers. “You’re on a probationary period of two months, you’ll start training with Sherman tomorrow and your pay stays the same.” When Raymond still continued to stare dumbfounded at him, Nikola leaned forward menacingly. “Sign.”

 

         Raymond hastily scrawled his signature on the documents and passed them back to Nikola, who stretched his arms behind his head as he worked out a kink in his neck. “Now-“  
  


         “-go feed the pigeons?”

 

         “Oh I’m going to miss saying that.” Nikola smirked and raised his glass before knocking it back and draining the remnants.

 

***

 

         “The strange behavior and migrations have escalated. Most of our day-to-day operations have been swamped by trying to suppress abnormal sighting in the media.”

 

         This was the fourth call Helen had received from Vikram in the past two weeks, not to mention two conference calls with about half the Heads of the network.

 

         “The attacks on civilians?”

 

         Vikram ran a hand through his hair, dark circles prominent under his eyes. “Accidents. We have several species beginning to encroach on high human traffic areas. The more human-abnormal encounters…the more incidents there are bound to be.”

 

         Helen tapped a pen against her lips, her mind closing in on something. “Have any of the humanoid abnormals joined this migration? Any that the Sanctuary has managed to liaise successfully with? That may be an excellent point of contact to try and gain some insight into the situation.”  
  


         Vikram busily began typing into his computer, his eyes darting back and forth as they scanned his screen. “Perhaps the water nymphs…actually, I’ll touch base with Cairo on this. The dune harpies commune regularly with the sand rays and I know Pili’s seeing the same thing with them.”

 

         “All right, keep me posted please.”  
  


 

         “I will.” Vikram was finally able to manage a genuine smile through the bone-weary fatigue. “You should try asking the mermaid at your Sanctuary. I understand she possesses very strong psychic abilities.”

 

         Helen was surprised as she hadn’t even considered that until just then. She pressed her hands together, said “namaste” and `ended the video call.

 

***

 

         “Hey, Will.” Will looked up and saw Henry working intently at his station and sidled over.

 

         “You called?”

 

         Henry looked up over the top of his monitor, a question twisting his lips. “Have you heard from our pale friend recently?”

 

         “Aurelian?” Will looked up to the ceiling as he tried to remember the last time they had spoken. “It’s been awhile. Last time I heard from him he was just starting out his big South American pow-wow. I got a postcard from Santiago.”

 

         Henry’s eyebrows rose and he beckoned for Will to come sit beside him. “Yeah, well I think these days our friend’s been exploring the urban jungle.”

 

         Will sat down and saw several reports and police files on mysterious deaths or incidents. All fatalities showed sign of physical asphyxiation without any outward trauma or plausible explanations as to how. Those who had only suffered being knocked out unconscious experienced memory black-outs and respiratory issues.

 

         Henry looked grave as the implications started to sink in for Will. He typed into his keyboard and pulled up the Sanctuary database. “We know Aurelian was decommissioned from our network after doing a brief stint at Asuncion Sanctuary. But I’ve just found two decommissions on his record. The second one was for New York. Three months ago.”

 

         Will looked at Aureliano’s file, and indeed after a bit of searching saw the record of a decommission from Head of New York. “What the hell was he doing with them?”

 

         “I don’t know.” Henry was growing more annoyed as he pointed an accusing finger at his screen. “And I can’t find out. All of Aurelian’s old files, mission reports, advisements, budgets – hell, even on his abnormal abilities – has been locked into the fortified Tesla sector.”

 

         Henry had been working day and night to try and break the firewalls on New York’s records without any luck. Henry glanced sadly at his computer. “It’s like he’s stolen my baby…”

 

         Will rolled his eyes at him, before looking back to the news report. “Not a lot of this has been made known to the public.”

 

         Henry shook his head. “No…it’s mostly all internal NYPD…all of these guys have connections to organized crime.”

 

         Will’s eyes widened and he laughed incredulously. “What? They’re mob hits? That’s ridiculous.”

 

         “You’re probably right, but there’s something really fishy going on here. Like,” Henry spread his arms wide, “giant squid fishy!”

 

***

 

         Helen pressed her hand to the glass and it felt shockingly cool in the otherwise warm room. A moment later their resident mermaid, or Sally, swam up to the edge of the tank. There was always a disturbingly serene smile on her face, but she whisked her tail playfully in the water before setting her hand in front of Helen’s.

 

         Sally could immediately sense what was troubling Helen, and tilted her head to the side as she sifted through the feelings of anxiety and confusion. There was a great puzzle turning in Helen’s mind that at present she could only pick away at…she was missing pieces.

 

         “Have you sensed any of what the others have?” Helen asked.

 

         She was sent back a rush of ideas and thoughts. The mermaid didn’t communicate in words per se, and though the line of communication was non-verbal, it wasn’t a true empathic reading either. Helen got back the idea that the mermaid had only vaguely detected the migrations, but from so far away it felt like the usual swirl of movements in the psychic field.

 

         “What are they responding to? Why are they doing this?”

 

         Sally closed her eyes, almost seeming to lift upwards slightly in the water as she further opened her mind. Helen was sent back the impression that there was a signal…some kind of clarion call. Some had decided not to answer it…most were eager to follow.

 

         Helen felt a chill run down her spine, eerie but not unpleasant. “Do you know what the signal is saying?”

 

         Sally frowned slightly then, her hair twirling in the clear water as she struggled to translate the feeling to Helen. Helen saw a vast expanse of water, which she didn’t understand. “The sea? The oceans?”

 

         Sally shook her head and then projected an image of the Sanctuary to Helen…the fireplace when lit…her bed…

 

         “Home.” Helen’s eyes fluttered open and Sally was smiling and nodding now. “Something is calling them home.”

 

         Sally sent her the flattering message that she would be ignoring the call as she was more at home in the Sanctuary. Helen smiled briefly cut couldn’t erase the larger mysteries now unfolding. “Where is this home?”

 

         Sally shook her head this time. Even she didn’t know.

 

***

 

         “You doing okay?” Sherman clapped a hearty hand to Raymond’s shoulder, who was trying not to gag from the musty, damp, urine-drenched smell of the sewers.

 

         “Here, catch.” Kelly tossed him a small tub of Vapo-rub, miming rubbing it under her nose. Raymond gratefully followed her lead and found breathing in the sewer air more bearable with a heavy accent of menthol.

 

         “Is everything down in the sewers?” Raymond choked out.

 

         “We’re in New York, where else can abnormals hide?” That was Tesla barking at them from their live feeds back to the Sanctuary.

 

         “Rooftops,” Sherman grunted as he scouted the next corner and waved them forward. Standard military procedure couldn’t be beaten out of him, even though Kelly had her stunner in her holster instead of in her hand. Now that New York had a treaty with the Underground Brotherhood the abandoned stations and tunnels were exponentially safer.

 

         “Did the mole people build the subway tunnels?” Raymond asked, still in awe of their surroundings.

 

         Kelly flashed Tesla a smarmy grin as they pushed deeper and deeper underground. “See? Not a stupid question.”

 

         “Radio _silence_ ,” Sherman hissed as he scouted his blind spots. Tesla stuck his tongue at him through the monitor at the same time Kelly flashed him a rude gesture.

 

         They pushed deeper and deeper in, and were beginning to see signs of the Underground dwellings. Makeshift beds carved out of the clay, fortifications on the tunnels and a simple but rather elegant irrigation system that collected the dripping moisture from over-hanging rocks. But there was no one to be seen.

 

         Kelly looked around, confused. “Where is everybody?”

 

         Sherman had no answers and keyed in for Tesla. “Do you still have a signal on us? Can you pull up the map and tell us where we are?”

 

         Through their small monitor they could see Tesla tapping away at his keyboard. “There should be an opening that leads to their main amphitheatre. Natural cavern. About twenty feet to your left.”

 

         Kelly pulled her stunner this time and Raymond followed suit. Sherman quietly said “safety’s off” and lead them to the entrance. They saw a small mouth in the rock and had to duck as they made their way through a winding tunnel. Kelly and Raymond heard Sherman let out a low whistle when they saw the main living and meeting quarters of the Underground Dwellers.

 

         The place was in ruins. There was broken, overturned furniture, ripped fabric, churned mud and rat corpses littered everywhere. It looked like a tornado had ripped through.

 

         “Hello?” Raymond called out tentatively. “Hello?”

 

         They saw something move at the far end of the cavern and Sherman instantly whipped his stunner in that direction. They heard a frightened squeak and whatever it was ducked out of sight. Sherman began to step forward, stunner still out, but Raymond put out a hand to stop him. He replaced hi stunner on his belt and crept forward, crouching.

 

         “Careful, Raymond,” Kelly called out.

 

         Raymond crouched by the edge of the cavern where he found a small opening. “Hello? It’s alright, we’re from the Sanctuary. Won’t you come out?” He heard some shuffling and then a pair of eyes peer up through the darkness. He smiled and held out a welcoming hand. After the eyes darted back and forth, a small broad hand crept out. It was wider then average, with long, tough nails, but unmistakably a child’s hand.

 

         Kelly and Sherman looked on in wonder as Raymond pulled a small Underground boy from the hole he had dug to hide in. They had never seen one of the Underground children before, only the scouts and leaders.

 

         “Where is everyone else?” Kelly asked gently.

 

         The boy, still holding onto Raymond’s hand, ignored her and tapped Raymond’s pockets. He sniffed at Raymond’s vest looking for something.

 

         “I think he wants some candy,” Sherman said, rooting through his pockets. He found a chocolate bar and tossed it to Raymond. “Here.”

 

         Raymond unwrapped the bar and handed it to the boy who happily stuck it into his mouth. The boy tugged on his hand and pointed to a crevice in the wall. He jabbed his finger excitedly at it and Sherman walked over, peering curiously into the crack.

 

         “What’s in there?” Tesla asked from their receivers.

 

         “I’m not sure,” Sherman muttered. “It’s dark.”

 

         “I think the others may be in there,” Kelly said.

 

         Raymond looked to the underground boy. “We can’t fit through there.” The boy wriggled out of his grip and ran towards the crevice. With his spade-like hands he pushed at the edges, digging some of the packed dirt away, and because he was much smaller he slipped through the gap.

 

         They stood there for a few minutes, wondering what to do, when they heard scraping and earth shifting. A few moments later the crevice seemed to open up like a yawning mouth and they saw a crowd of smudged, frightened faces peering out at them. The Underground Dwellers stepped cautiously back into their quarters. Some hung back, wary of the strangers, others sobbed at the destruction of their homes and most began the task of clearing up the debris and damaged things right away.

 

         One of the Underground men came up to them and from his tattered vest they saw that he was a scout. “Sanctuary?”

 

         Sherman stepped forward. “Yes.”

 

         The Underground man gestured for them to sit on a dug-out ledge and went to fetch their Chief. Kelly pulled out a tablet and set up a video call to the Sanctuary. When the Underground Chieftain came he was handed the tablet so he could speak to Tesla directly.

 

***

 

         “Luckily, not many of our people were injured, and none of them permanently. But some of the older who were not fast enough were attacked.”

 

         Nikola pursed his lips, considering what the Underground Chieftain had recounted. “They have never acted this way before?”

 

         The Chieftain coughed and spat out a wad of gritty phlegm to the floor, causing Nikola to recoil in disgust despite being miles away. “The rats have always tried to sneak into our homes to steal food or to find places to nest, but we have never seen them come in so great a number. Their kings are working in concert.”

 

         Nikola looked past the Chieftain’s shoulder at the wreckage. “Looks like they weren’t planning to stick around though…”

 

         The Chieftain placed his broad, spade-like hand against his face. “That is puzzling, yes. We thought the rat colonies had come for our territory, but they passed through in waves. They made use of our tunnels leading to the surface and water reservoirs.”

 

         “Send your injured to us for now. We’ll discuss later about housing those who are displaced and can’t help in the rebuild. Now if you would please hand me back to my team.” Nikola closed his eyes briefly as the tablet was handed over so he didn’t have to see the dizzying, shaking image. When he opened his eyes again he saw Kelly and Sherman huddled together around the screen.

 

         “Where’s Edison?”

 

         Kelly looked somewhere in the distance. “Teaching the kids how to play soccer.”

 

         Nikola sneered. “He should teach kindergarten, get him over here. We have to find a way to house the Underground as they fix their tunnels and dirt-holes. But first, we need to find out why the rats went on a rampage.”

 

         Kelly frowned slightly as she sat back down with Raymond in tow. “Yeah, we’ve been seeing a lot of the city regulars doing the same, but I thought you had an idea of what was going on.”

 

         “I do have an idea, but this seems a little off.” Nikola pulled up the schematics of the tunnels and abandoned stations. “The rat colonies have nests here and here…almost two miles away with sewer openings at the southeast corner. Why didn’t they use that?”

 

         Sherman shrugged. “Tunnel collapse?”

 

         “Maybe…but it’s something you need to check out. Head over to the nests now and do a sweep, if there’s anything out of place we need to know. I’ll be sending Druitt with a team over to evacuate the injured.”

 

         Kelly switched off the tablet, pulling up the schematics on the receiver strapped to her arm instead. “Oh, how I love you Bluetooth.”

 

         Nikola frowned on the small receiver. “ _I_ designed the network system for your tech.”

 

         Kelly shrugged. “Yeah? And it’s essentially Bluetooth. Keep up with the times, gramps.” She muted her receiver just before Tesla flew into a spitting tirade against her, all of her predecessors and progeny to come.

 

***

 

         Henry sat slumped at his desk, his head in his hands and a dejected look on his face. He had been sleeping by his computer for a week now, and his fingers were stiff and raw from the relentless hours of coding he’d been trying to breach the ‘Tesla Sector’ with.

 

         Will came in with a platter of sandwiches Biggie had made, with the instructions Henry eat them all on pain of a smack. Henry’s computer started beeping and Will asked, “What’s that?”

 

         Henry, barely able to lift his head, gave a cursory glance to his screen. “It’s just Erika on Skype.”

 

         Will set down the tray, his hand waving to the computer. “Erika…”

 

         Henry blinked, confused. “What about her?”

 

         Will sat down and shoved a sandwich into Henry’s mouth. “Maybe this is a two-HAP job.”

 

         Tired, Henry stared confused for a few moments before his eyes widened as the thought sank in. “Erika’s a HAP!”

 

         Will stared at him incredulously. “Well done, Henry. If the two of you put your minds together on this you might be able to make a breakthrough. The two of you know more about computers than anyone I know.”

 

         Henry looked glumly down the half-eaten sandwich  in his hand. “Except for Tesla.”

 

         Will bracingly gripped Henry’s shoulders. “Come on, man. Are you saying two Hyper-Accelerated Proteans can’t take on one scrawny vampire?”

 

         “Yeah… _yeah!_ ” Henry almost stood up out of his chair, but his legs were stiff from sitting down all day and he fell back down. He plugged in his headset and opened up Skype. “Hey honey, will Declan give you some vacation time?”

 

***

 

         “The rats definitely came through this way…” Sherman kicked aside a dented soda can as they looked through the tunnels and saw churned dirt, mud and garbage.

 

         “And at high speed,” Kelly muttered as she examined ripped tufts of fur that had snagged on some of the metal framing on the sewage pipes. “They weren’t slowing down for anything, including their dead.”

 

         “Is there anything out of place?” Tesla asked from the receiver.

 

         “Seriously, doc – _what_ are you looking for?” Kelly finally snapped. “We’ve been down in the sewers for over _four hours_.”

 

         Tesla looked like he was about to snap angrily back, but he bit back any invective he wanted to unleash. “Keep your eyes peeled for anything man-made that isn’t garbage.”

 

         The team of three, sodden and somewhat disheartened, finally made it to the nest of one of the super-colonies. Kelly grimly smeared more Vapo-rub under her nose. The nest was made up of any scrap the rats could find and they had shaped it almost into a hive of warrens and holes.

 

         “What the hell is that?” Raymond pointed his stunner to a spot on the wall. They approached closer and Kelly let out an anxiously held in breath. There was a handprint on the wall, stamped with white paint.

 

         Sherman gingerly dabbed at the handprint. “It’s still wet.” He clicked on his flashlight and swept the beam over the nest.

 

         “There,” Kelly pointed to a spot on the ground and Sherman trained the light’s beam back over. They saw what looked like a pierced, fortified can lying on the ground. It looked more sophisticated than an ordinary aerosol can, more like one of the pressurized containers the Sanctuary would use.

 

         “Don’t touch it with your bare hands,” Tesla said.

 

         Sherman pulled the baseball cap off his head and gently scooped the pierced canister into that. He looked into his receiver; troubled by the eerie experience they had down in the sewers. “Is this what you were looking for, doc?”

 

         Tesla’s mouth was set into a grim line and he gave a brief nod.


	8. Chapter 8

EIGHT

***

 

         John looked down at the phone before slipping it back into his pocket. He strolled casually down Madison Avenue before ducking discreetly into an alley. A pale man was waiting for him there and they walked together in silence. John and Aurelian found their way to another side-street before climbing up a fire escape and finally settling once they had made their way to a deserted rooftop.

 

         “Where has the signal moved to now?” Aureliano asked, pushing his sunglasses up into his hair.

 

         “It left New York about three nights ago. It looked like it was on its way across the US-Canada border in Niagara.” John pulled the phone out from his pocket and brought up a picture. He held it in front of Aureliano’s face. “That. What does that mean?”

 

         It was a picture of the white hand the Sanctuary team had found down in the rat nest. Aureliano looked blandly at the photograph, his face impassive.

 

         John grit his teeth. “You _know._ You know what this means.”

 

         Aureliano casually slipped his hands into his pockets. “You obviously have an idea if you think I know.”

 

         John took a step forward, trying to intimidate with his size. He knew it wouldn’t trouble the serene Sybarite in front of him, but it was second nature to the way he moved. “I know enough to recognize it as a symbol from South America. But further than that nad I am in the dark.”

 

         Aureliano gave another casual shrug. “It is the white hand.”

 

         John rolled his eyes and shoved the phone back into his coat. “I had surmised as much.”

 

         This time Aureliano stepped forward with surprising aggression, causing John now to take a step back, and he grabbed the front of John’s shirt. “The White Hand in countries that are baked golden-brown by the sun. Places where people work stooped over in the earth and dirt, where they do not wear white clothing for it will always be stained.”

 

         Aureliano held up his own hand, pale and alabaster, unable to be tanned by any amount of light. “The White Hand means wealth, means you do not have to work, means power, means you rule, means you decide who lives and who dies. Which governments reign and which topple.”

 

         Aureliano let go of John’s shirt, stepping back and placing the sunglasses over his face again so John could not see the anger flashing there anymore. “I told the blood demon he was going far in over his head. They are coming for him now.”

 

         Shaken, John watched as Aureliano climbed down the fire escape and ducked out of view. He looked at his own outstretched hand with a somber gaze.

 

***

 

         “Wake up.” Henry heard something swoosh in the air and suddenly he had slid halfway along his desk and his ear was burning. Startled, he sat up and saw Biggie swim into focus, holding a tray with an obnoxiously frilly flower in a cup.

 

         “Breakfast.” He set it down with a clatter and left.

 

         Henry looked to his side and saw Erika asleep as well, though someone had the presence of mind to put a pillow under her head and drape a blanket over her shoulders. “Good morning,” Henry whispered, gently shaking her awake. Erika yawned, stretching out and greeting him with a sleepy kiss.

 

         Henry stared at his screen with a mixture of hatred and betrayal as he spooned cheerios into his mouth. Erika playfully nudged him, hoping to dispel his bad mood, and said, “I think our problem is our hardware can’t keep up with the security measures New York has in place.”

 

         “What do you mean?”

 

         Erika pushed a stray lock of hair from her eyes as she pulled up the blue prints of New York Sanctuary. “Most of the blocks and firewalls we normally encounter are a matter of coding, but Doctor Tesla has abilities beyond a normal programmer.”

 

         Henry sighed unhappily. “Yeah, he can just point his finger at this computer and it makes his toast.”

 

         Erika smiled ruefully at him. “Not quite. But what I’m saying is Tesla must have protected the New York database with more than just firewalls. EM shields, or an isolated power grid, or rotating data bursts to interrupt any external frequencies.”

 

         Henry slumped his head back into his hand, nodding thoughtfully. “And while our tech here is good, we can only really try to hack in on one spectrum.”

 

         “While there are probably many different layers of security.”

 

         Henry banged his head on his desk. “Well, what do we do now?”

 

         Erika finished her orange juice and with an authoritative air, grabbed Henry’s arm and pulled him to his feet. “You’re taking me to the hardware store for parts. And you need a new soldering iron.”

 

         He gave her a dopey grin. “I love you.”

 

***

 

         “Hello?” Will stared confused at the dirty blonde woman in front of him, beaming as she shook his hand.

 

         “Hi, I’m Katie. The intern?” She looked a little puzzled at the cool reception. Will was still trying to figure out what was going on. At first he thought it had been an intruder or the FBI at the door.

 

         Katie’s smile faltered slightly and she dug into her jacket for a business card. “I was an intern at London with Doctor MacRae.” She showed Will the Sanctuary network embossed ID with her name on it.

 

         “Oh.” Will felt slightly embarrassed and made an effort to be much friendlier now. “Nice to meet you. I didn’t realize we were picking up anyone new.”

 

         Will stepped aside to let her in and she brightened considerably once the welcome was warmer. “Oh no, I’m actually going to Berlin tomorrow, but I heard you guys had a steno and I wanted to take a look. Doctor Berkel said it would be alright if I delayed my flight and told me to collect some samples for him.”

 

         She then lifted a curious eyebrow at Will. “He assured me that he informed Doctor Magnus and that you would be expecting me. I hope I haven’t intruded…”

 

         “No, no,” Will quickly amended, gesturing for her to follow him. “I guess I was just out of the loop. Let’s go talk to Magnus now.”

 

***

 

         Helen knew she was being ridiculous and was having a firm, internal talk with herself.

 

         She couldn’t blame the girl for her name. Both names were very common, she was sure she must have met some other Katie Johnson’s in the past, so why was this young woman raising alarm bells?

 

         Katie was already at work, obviously more comfortable in a lab coat than anywhere else. The steno had been placed under sedation and she was giving it a truncated physical examination before collecting tissue, fluid and fiber samples. She was neat, methodical, skilled…

 

         Robert and Katharine had never had children. That was the firm line Helen held onto as she tried to do her own work at her station. They never, ever had any offspring. And if she was from Katharine’s line, her family name wouldn’t be Johnson anyway…that was the name Katharine took in marriage.

 

         The girl was obviously in awe of her and doing her best to impress her. And Helen admitted that she was quite a skilled veterinarian. Obviously she’d have to modify some of her procedures to accommodate different abnormal physiologies, but a background in herpetology already gave her experience with the very inhuman.

 

         Katie ( _Caitlin_ ) looked over at Helen with a small, shy smile. Through her goggles, Helen could see that Katie had bright green eyes…but her left eye had a blue fleck in it.

 

         A puzzling genetic trait. Helen looked away quickly and tried to forget the matter.

 

***

 

         Sherman let out a deep sigh, closing the wine cellar door behind him quietly and hoping no one would hear. The day had been a tornado from the moment he got up and he just needed a chance to catch his breath away from everyone. Maybe even crack open a beer.

 

         His moment of peace was broken just as suddenly as he gave a startled yelp, undignified for a former _SEAL_ , when he saw someone staring back at him. “ _Jesus_ , doc. What the hell are you doing down here?”

 

         Tesla glared at him, pulling out a bottle at random and taking a long swig before answering, “Hiding.” He drank some more. “What about you?”

 

         Sherman massaged his chest, his heart pounding from fright, and eased open his beer fridge and hunted for a can. “Hiding.”

 

         Tesla sat down on an overturned crate and pointed an agitated finger to the door. “There’re too many people in my house. And most of them are _filthy_.”

 

         Sherman lifted a worried eyebrow as he took the first chug of his beer.

 

         Nikola continued, building up steam quickly for a furious rant. “The mole people won’t bathe and they track crap all over my floors. It’s like if there isn’t a layer of dirt on it, it isn’t good enough for them. I found _mud_ in my _hair_. Gross.” He was waving a wild finger in the air now. “That crazy Nigerian voodoo witch won’t leave me alone for five minutes like I’m her favourite book. And Kelly let out those moth freaks during feeding and one of the little _creeps ate my pigeon_!”

 

         Nikola’s chest was heaving at this point and the hand holding the wine bottle trembled violently. Sherman held out a hand. “Breathe in, breathe out. Find your happy place.”

 

         “He ate Stephen Hawking!”

 

         Sherman nodded mock-sagely. “I’m sure the world mourns the loss of its greatest physicist.”

 

         Nikola glared daggers at him, baring his teeth in displeasure. He moodily drank another third of the bottle in his hand. “The place is a zoo. I hate zoos.” Nikola sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I must be desperate if I’m talking to you.”

 

         Sherman shrugged, swirling his can to see how much beer he had left. “Ah, you’re just drunk.”

 

         “I can’t get drunk.”

 

         Sherman smirked and shook his head. “Now that’s the real tragedy.”

 

         Nikola slumped against the shelf, tossing one leg over the other while his foot danced in the air. He glanced over at Sherman. “Is Ubuntu awake?”

 

         Sherman lowered his eyes. “Not yet.”

 

         Nikola drank another mouthful, then folding his arms broodingly across his chest. “He should have woken up by now.”

 

***

 

         Will walked into Henry’s lab and almost turned and walked right out of it again. Whatever Henry and Erika were working on it had turned the lab into an unrecognizable mess.

 

         Will stepped cautiously in. “Hey guys?”

 

         “Over here. The tower,” came a voice from somewhere in the middle of the room. Will picked his way over power cables, piping, and broken parts from parabolic dishes, cameras and god knows what.

 

         At the center of the room was the tower, standing almost as tall as Will. Henry had a welding mask on as he fused some pipes together with an acetylene torch. The frame was made up of metal pipe and grids. Erika was shooting lasers through crystals and shaving them to shape the direction of the beam.

 

         “Wow.” Will held up his hands. “It’s like _2001 A Space Odyssey_ in here.”

 

         Henry’s torch gave out and he took a step back, lifting the welder’s mask from his face. “Hey man, do you still have the directory on all of the current phone numbers for the Oldham crowd?”

 

         “Oldham?”

 

         Henry gave him a lopsided grin. “This is turning out to be a many-HAP job.”

 

***

 

”He’s prone to funks. How bad is it this time?”

 

         Kelly grimly held up her phone and stepped into Tesla’s office so Helen could see the state of the carnage. There were bottles of wine making a carpet of the floor, dirt tracked on the walls, books littered around the room and angry hand smears obliterating the equations on his whiteboard.

 

         Helen muttered, “Oh dear”.

 

         Kelly pointed the phone back to herself. “He’s too proud to beg, but New York is overstretched in its capacity without help. Almost the entire Underground are here, and they refuse to be relocated to another city temporarily. They can’t go back to the tunnels yet…we’re all kind of stuck.”

 

         “I’ll contact Declan and I’ll be on my way.”

 

         She swathe relieved, tired grin on Kelly’s face. “Thanks, doc.”

 

***

 

         When Nikola opened the door she saw that his hair was sticking up at crazier angles than usual, that he reeked of wine, and his shirt actually had dirt on it.

 

         “I thought you were mad at me.”

 

         She gave him a sympathetic smile. “It’s not been a good day, is it?”

 

         He still stood, blocking the doorway, and finally heaved himself off to the side to let her in. “No.”

 

         The tired and overworked residents of New York looked inexorably happy and relieved when teams from London and Tokyo showed up closely behind Doctor Magnus. She steered Nikola firmly towards the direction of a shower and knew he must be exhausted when he even forgot to cheekily ask her if she wanted to join him.

 

         She made her way to the infirmary, knowing Nikola would spend a very long time trying to scrub and erase any smudge of dirt left behind on him. She found Sherman and, of all people, John in the infirmary next to Ubuntu’s bed. John was having a deep gash on his shoulder stitched by one of the medical team.

 

         “Run into a spot of bother?” She asked, nodding towards his arm.

 

         He gave her an ironic smile. “A very small speck.”

 

         Sherman had been reading a book in the chair by Ubuntu’s bed, now closing it and shaking Helen’s hand. Helen looked to the sleeping man. “How long has he been like this?”

 

         A cloud passed over Sherman’s face and he folded his arms across his chest. “Almost two weeks at this point.” Sherman looked around and lowered his voice. “Eloa, or whatever she’s called…I don’t know what she’s supposed to be doing but whatever voodoo it is doesn’t seem to be helping any.”

 

         Helen bit back an inward sigh at the poor choice of words. Sherman may still have some prejudices and suspicions of certain abnormals, but he was a good Sanctuary member and had proven his tactlessness did not mean he was insensitive. They were all a little strained right now for fear of losing one of the team, one of their family.

 

         “Where is Eloa now?”

 

         Sherman worried at his lip. “Trying to communicate with the big moth, I guess.”

 

         John looked over to Helen as his sutures were being bandaged now. “The air of futility you’re sensing is coming from the development of the young.”

 

         Helen looked over at him puzzled, and he raised an eyebrow. “They’re almost four feet in height right now. They will reach full growth in a month and sexual maturity a month after that.”

 

         Sherman snapped his book shut. “We can’t house or feed them for much longer. We’ll have eight big moths on our hands soon.” He let out a low groan. “I don’t know how we’ll get them out of here though. We can’t let them out on the rooftop and fly off.”

 

         John snorted. “Half the city would see.”

 

         “Not to mention the moth brood are confined during their most important developmental stage.” Nikola strode into the infirmary, his hair still wet, but looking considerably happier now that he was clean. “Their mother can’t teach them to fly in here. They need to be released soon or they’ll never learn to fly at all.”

 

         Nikola had a dangerously determined glint in his eye as he strode purposefully over to Ubuntu. Helen rose to her feet, bracing herself. “What are you proposing?”

 

         Nikola rolled up his sleeves. “I’m tired of waiting on that kooky witch-doctor. There’s one way to wake him up, and I need my team back.” Nikola reached for the defibrillator and began pasting the shock pads to Ubuntu’s chest.

 

         Helen’s hand shot out before he could turn on the machine. “Nikola, are you insane?” John and Sherman had both risen to their feet as well, glancing to the two doctors and each other warily. They were unsure if they should break up the argument and stop Tesla.

 

         Nikola coolly retorted. “I’m not insane, I’m a _genius_. And the psychic link will break if the moth thinks he’s dead.”

 

         Helen glared at him. “So you’re going to kill him?”

 

         Nikola shrugged. “Only for eighty seconds.”

 

         Helen rounded on him. “For heaven’s sake, Nikola – check your ego at the door! You can’t just recklessly risk the lives of your team, you have a responsibility to their well-being as their Head-“

 

         “ _Don’t tell me how to run my Sanctuary_.” Nikola’s chest was heaving and he had wrenched his arm free from Helen’s grasp. His eyes had flickered back and even he had only just realized the beast had come out of his voice. He struggled to remain calm and when he spoke again it was with his normal tone.

 

         “Don’t you think I _know_ I’m responsible?” He gave her a piercing look. “I’m doing what I think is right and has to be done. You should know what that’s like.”

 

         Stunned, Helen took a step back, struck with the eerie feeling that she did not know the man in front of her at all. Without wasting a moment’s time, Nikola charged the defibrillator and zapped Ubuntu.

 

         The man’s chest and torso rocked upwards into the air. The vital signs monitor went insane. Nikola clamped the paddles down on Ubuntu’s chest and another alarming spasm rocked through the man’s body before he fell, stone-like, back onto the bed. The monitor blared at them in a single, unbroken tone to signify a flat-line.

 

         Helen held in her breath as Nikola was now staring intently at his watch and counting seconds mentally. She looked to Sherman, who was mildly disturbed by what he was seeing, but fascinated more than anything.

 

         A curious thought reached her. “You’re not afraid at all, are you?”

 

         Sherman’s eyebrows lifted curiously, but then settled into a small smile. “Hey, if I wanted anyone on the controlling end of paddles, it would be a guy who can control electricity.”

 

         This statement, again, caught Helen off-guard and she was contemplative as she watched Nikola, still silently counting. His focus was always his greatest asset and flaw. He had the will to do the work of a hundred men, and yet his fixations often turned to obsession. She saw the tell-tale mark of it now, a small groove on his brow, his lips moving silently…

 

         “What have you done! What have you done to him, demon!”

 

         Helen started and they all looked over to see Eloa pounding down the hallway, obviously having sensed Ubuntu’s disappearance in the empathic realm. John immediately stepped in front of the doorway, blocking entry and greeted her furious cries with a pleasant, menacing smile.

 

         Nikola’s eyes had only flickered upward for a split second at the disturbance before going back to his watch. Helen saw his lips mouth “eighty” and suddenly he was powering on the machine and grabbing the paddles again.

 

         “Ubuntu…Ubuntu…” Eloa was now sobbing outside in the hall.

 

         Nikola charged the paddles and roared, “Time to wake up!” before clamping them over Ubuntu’s chest. The man rocked upwards and fell back down. The vital signs monitor droned on.

 

         “Your vacation time’s used up!” Nikola clamped the paddles down on Ubuntu’s chest again with a fury that was borne of fear. Helen had only seen him this way a handful of times before and each time it scared and broke her heart.

 

         Nikola was performing CPR now, knowing he only had two more tries with the paddles or risk damaging Ubuntu’s heart. “Come on…I need a token abnormal on my team!”

 

         Sherman had his ball cap wringing and twisting in his hands as he looked on with a pale face. Nikola grabbed the paddles again, glancing up at Helen briefly, before powering up and clamping them onto the man’s chest once more.

 

         A wheeze was ripped from Ubuntu’s throat as his torso rocked upwards and the vital signs monitor began to spit angry beeps at them. Sherman quickly crossed himself in divine thanks, and Helen even found herself squeezing his arm in relief.

 

         Nikola looked more relieved than anyone, and was now pressing his fingertips to Ubuntu’s chest and helping regulate and calm the current running through his heart. The vital signs monitor had slowed to an even and soothing pattern of bleeps now and Ubuntu groaned, his eyes closed.

 

         Slowly, Ubuntu cracked open his eyes, his voice rough. “You…are…an asshole.”

 

         Sherman let out a childish snort of laughter and stuffed his fist into his mouth. Nikola glared at Ubuntu, but even he couldn’t fully mask how happy he was that the man was awake. “No Christmas bonus.”

 

         “Get some rest.” Sherman sat down beside Ubuntu now, passing him a cup of water with a straw.

 

         Nikola, wiping sweat from his forehead, pointed an imperious finger through John to the empath outside. “Get out of my house.”

 

         “ _Nikola_.” Helen was scandalized, but for once Nikola didn’t look as if he were joking or doing this for anyone’s benefit. She rushed over to take care of the situation as, drained, Nikola collapsed into a chair.

 

***

 

         “I’m…sorry, Nikola.”

 

         He looked over to her and snorted, “No, you’re not” though there was no bitterness in his tone. He waved a tired hand at her. “I don’t want to hear it anyway.”

 

         She squeezed hi arm, trying to comfort him some way for the ordeal his week had turned into. He sighed heavily, though it was a more peaceful release of his frustrations and slipped her a wink. “Let’s get out of here.”

 

         “What?”

 

         He was already pulling on his suit jacket and grabbing her coat. “Come on, I could use a break from this place. Let’s go sniff out some fun.”

 

         Helen couldn’t stop the laugh bubbling past her lips as he grabbed her arm and tugged her along down the hallway. “Nikola, you are incorrigible.” She hadn’t the heart to deny him though, and thought some harmless fun might actually do them both good.

 

         “So what does an ex-Victorian vampire do for fun in the twenty-first century?” She smirked at him. “Hit the dance clubs? The strip bars? Casinos?”

 

         Nikola held up a finer. “A casino isn’t a gamble, it’s a veritable buffet with a mind like mine. And…nothing so pedestrian. You’ll _see_.”

 

         They ran out into the street and Nikola hailed them a cab. Once inside he consulted his tablet before asking the driver to take them near Wall street. Helen sat back, puzzled. What on earth were they going to do amidst the banks and high-rises? Drink with Microsoft executives?

 

         The cab stopped and Nikola stepped out, holding out a hand to her. “M’lady”.

 

         When the driver left, he tucked her arm into his, as if they were going somewhere very nice and very expensive for dinner, and ducked into an alleyway instead.

 

         “Oh,” Helen quipped, “so we’ll be sharing a bottle of anti-freeze with the homeless under a bridge?”

 

         Nikola smirked as he pulled down a staircase from a fire escape. “Not quite.” Deftly, he climbed up and lifted an eyebrow at Helen, daring her to do it faster. She shook her head in disbelief, but slipped off her heels and shimmied up the escape in record time.

 

         “Show off.” He grinned.

 

         In that fashion, both trying to outdo the other, they scaled the ten storey’s or so of the building and finally made it up to the rooftop. As Helen pulled herself up over the ledge she heard the soft strains of music and looked curiously over to Nikola. Was this the surprise? He merely had a quiet look of satisfaction on his face and helped her with her shoes.

As they made their way to the clearing of the roof, Helen saw a group of people gathered in a circle, all with flashlights or electric lamps. There were bottles of wine, some beer, instruments and books. A few young men were noodling around on their trumpets as an older man read aloud from _Ulysses_ to the others. They looked up at Nikola approaching with inviting recognition, but no one broke the relative silence.

 

         Helen had a dozen questions burning at her lips but felt that she too shouldn’t beak whatever quiet magic was happening here. They sat down on the gathered boxes and crates and when passed a bottle of very fine, unexpected, Beaujolais she drank.

 

         The small group seemed to ebb and flow with the waning moonlight. Some were the young college students you’d expect such a guerilla form of entertainment from. There were a few surprising business suits, accountants who looked more at peace up here than they ever would behind a desk. One or two, with bowed backs and white hair that made Helen wonder how they ever made it up to the roof in the first place. And then there was her and Nikola, and she was beginning to realize the appeal of this night. For two people who had seen two great wars, society go through unthinkable waves of change, great and terrible men rise and fall, this night felt like a breath.

 

         A simple breath, a momentary pause before the wheels began turning again. A moment where everything was moving slowly enough that it almost felt still. That moment could be broken at any time, but there was an appeal to that as well.

 

         She looked over at him, their faces lightly illuminated, and she saw that the smile on his face was peaceful. It was dark enough that you could barely make out the elemental by his throat. He noticed her looking at him, and gave her a small grin before whispering, “Dance with me.”

 

         He pulled her to her feet and she suddenly felt the flush of the wine she had been drinking on her cheeks and caressing her legs. “There’s no music,” she whispered back.

 

         “You’ll see.” He wrapped his arm around her waist, holding her daringly close, and normally Helen would have admonished him and smacked him away, but there was no one here, no one who cared. For all these wandering few knew here was a man and woman who had loved each other for just the right amount of time. Not a year, not a decade, not a lifetime more.

 

         She felt something inside her grow thin as he swayed her from side to side, a low him in the back of his throat. The long violin string running from her head to her toes of resolve, now was stretched so taut she was afraid it would snap in a volley of tears. Nikola’s humming was slowly joined at first by one horn, then another, a flute, a guitar and saxophone, and she was bathed again in the night, and Glen Miller, dancing with her best friend. She peeked over his shoulder and saw that a few others had joined in the gentle, slow dancing as well, and she buried her face into his shoulder again. Once couple amongst many. They could be anonymous up here.

 

         She felt the string within her shake, quiver, but finally she had it back under control. That was her job, time and time again. She looked up to Nikola and saw that his eyes were closed and it softened the years on his face. He felt her watching him though, and his eyes slowly opened into slivers of dark blue.

 

         “This really is your city, isn’t it?” She murmured by his neck.

 

         He smiled gently, a touch of that devil’s grin around his mouth, and whispered back, “Damn right it is. I’m the King of New York.”


	9. Chapter 9

NINE 

 

There had been a small impromptu party when Ubuntu was deemed well enough to leave the infirmary. Sherman had emptied out the contents of his beer fridge, and Kelly played her ukulele as they happily trashed the lab with the tech rats. Raymond had been just as swept up in the celebration, but it was now in the morning that he felt it tinged with some regret.

 

         He was truly glad Ubuntu was better, but that meant there were the standard three field operatives on active duty now. He’d go back to being the office boy. He tried to cheer himself up as he made his way to Tesla’s office by thinking, it probably wasn’t suited to him anyway. He was still scared every time he had to handle a gun, he wasn’t a brainiac like Kelly, and he wasn’t a superhero like Ubuntu.

 

         No, it seemed they had all they needed.

 

         Raymond whistled tunelessly to himself as he sifted through that week’s inbox of mail, trying to forget how much he had had this week.

 

         About an hour after he had settled in the door burst open and Sherman poked his head in. He looked irritated. “Where the hell have you been? You’re late, get a move on.”

 

         Raymond was startled. Late for what?”

 

         “It’s our turn to go bring supplies to the Underground site. Hop to it – I hate driving stick and we’ve got to take the van.”

 

         Raymond hesitated another moment before leaping up and following after Sherman, trying to hide the glee in his face. He had forgotten all about the remote hack lying discreetly, hidden in his room.

 

***

 

         Helen left again that morning, they had both stayed up until the sky began to brighten and the sun slowly began to rise, and while he chided her about always rushing off he swore he saw regret sparking in her eyes. Well, that was interesting.

 

         And it was with the feeling of a balloon buoying him up that Nikola walked through the doors of his Sanctuary and promptly fell asleep on a bench in the lobby. He had the vague notion in his sleep that someone was moving him, but it wouldn’t be until later that he woke up in his bed. And a glance at the clock told him he had essentially given his monkeys the morning off.

 

         Wondering if it would make him look weak, he caved and suspended the duty roster for the next three days. They were bogged down as it was until the Underground could be relocated again.

 

         And he had some clandestine meetings to slip away to in the ordered chaos.

 

         Hungry. There it was again. He felt the gnawing in his stomach, the burning in his throat as his tongue roamed the back of his teeth, restless. Absently, he reached into his vest pocket for the medication to curb his cravings and with dull surprise he found it empty. He had picked that up last week and it was meant to last a month…

 

***

 

         “Colour me surprised. I should have expected it would be you,” John Druitt drawled pleasantly as he crossed his arms against his chest. He had been waiting an hour at the drop-off point to “meet an old friend” as Nikola had put it. He didn’t know if it irked him that he had become the vampire’s errand boy, but it did give him a chance to be useful. What on earth Nikola was up to was another question entirely.

 

         “I confess, I did not expect to still be here.” Aureliano had smoothed his hair back into a tight queue, a faint smile around his lips.

 

         “Yes, for all your protests of not allowing Nikola to indulge in foolishness-“

 

         “-no man could stop that.” The exasperated tone in Aureliano’s voice made John laugh. Aureliano passed him the case by his side, black and heavily clasped. He looked mildly disturbed. “It is a prototype…and it will be missed. I have every reason to suspect it could be traced back to the Sanctuary, so why the blood demon wants to bring it within his walls is beyond me.”

 

         John’s eyebrows arched and he undid the front clasps of the case to take a look inside. “Who did he steal this from?”

 

         Aureliano refused to say the name aloud and instead allowed a tendril of silvery mist escape his nose and it curled towards John. John inhaled and heard the name “Blackwater” reverberate in his mind.

 

         His insides turned to ice. A mercenary group with a reputation that preceded them, not one of the most dangerous to be sure, otherwise they wouldn’t have had the level of transparency that they did (which was to say – any at all). However, their abnormal operations were virtually unknown and they were one of the five groups with a bounty on John’s head to be captured alive.

 

         And from the peek he had taken of the case’s contents…Nikola was stealing prototypes for anti-abnormal weaponry from them. John immediately snapped the case shut.

 

         “Seven o’clock at this address.” John handed Aureliano the note with Nikola’s scrawl on it. Aureliano gave him a brief nod as if to say he understood, and John vanished into the night, feeling particularly jumpy with the cargo he was carrying.

 

***

 

         Will and Biggie shared a look, steeling themselves before they opened the door to Henry’s lab. They were carrying several large bags of fish and chips from around the corner, and before the door opened they heard the welcome yelp of “dinner’s here!”. The heightened HAP sense of smell was especially attuned to deep-fried fish.

 

         Will smirked as he was bombarded with several eager faces. “All right, geek squad, calm down.” Not only were Henry and Erika involved with the project now but they had convinced Alistair, Graham, Vera and old Malcolm. This had turned out to be a six-HAP job.

 

         And there was now barely any room in the lab to even move. The hungry workers fell on the food, eating standing up with tools hanging off their belts. Will wasn’t sure what exactly they were constructing, but it looked vaguely like the small tower Tesla had built for his remote hack.

 

         “But one step further,” Henry enthusiastically pointed after shoving several chips in his mouth. “We have it operating on rotating frequencies with the ability to interrupt New York’s shields for a nanosecond at a time.”

 

         Alistair, much more polite about his eating habits and using the fork provided, spoke up with a worried expression on his face. “That all depends on whether our software can accurately predict the pattern of New York’s data bursts and mimic them. A nanosecond also means we’ll have to retrieve the information from the buffer drives and isolate it right away before it’s rewritten.”

 

         Will didn’t understand a single thing they were saying to him, but nodded supportively when he thought it was appropriate. It seemed they could all carry the conversation without him anyway.

 

         “That means we need to know which sectors to hit before attempting a hack…and just where Tesla’s hidden the information is another element we’ll have to scan for.” Erika chewed thoughtfully as she ran schematics on Henry’s computer.

 

         “It’ll work  _fine_ ,” wheezed Old Malcolm, who was fine-tuning a parabolic dish. “You can’t rush me, but this is my best work yet. I think I’ll patent it.”

 

         Will grinned. “What are you going to call it?”

 

         Without a hint of irony came the sincere reply. “Sector-finding device.”

 

         Biggie gave Will a look then that made Will stuff his fist into his mouth so he wouldn’t laugh in the poor old man’s face.

 

         “What on earth is going on here?” All eight heads turned around to see Doctor Magnus standing in the doorway and Henry paled. She tried to pick her way through the cables and debris, and Biggie had to give her a hand.

 

         “Uhh…I can explain,” Henry stammered.

 

         Helen arched an eyebrow. “Can you?”

 

         Henry snapped his mouth shut. “No, no I can’t. It’s a matter of abnormal pride.” He ignored Will’s gesture of miming cutting his throat. “We have to prove HAP’s are better techs than vampires.”

 

         Helen froze for a moment and slowly crossed her arms. “And how much of my money have you spent trying to upstage Nikola?”

 

         Henry gulped. “My yearly expense account for the lab.” The look on Helen’s face made him wince.

 

         “Doctor Magnus,” Erika smoothly stepped in, “this isn’t an idle project, we’ve all come to assist Henry in an important task. From what I’ve gathered there is information Doctor Tesla has been withholding from you.” She looked about the room and five friendly, hopeful faces beamed along with her. “We’re the team to get it for you.”

 

         Helen tried to keep the stony, stern expression on her face but cracked slightly at the six HAP’s all trying to charm her with their Irish smiles (god forbid). She shook her head, trying to hide a laugh. “You have twenty-four hours to prove to me this will work.”

 

         Henry let out a huge sigh of relief. “Thanks, doc.”

 

         Helen gave Will a look then and he threw up his hands as if to say, “don’t look at me!”

 

***

 

         “The shadow naga isn’t responding to Phase Four. Her vitals still need to be monitored constantly.”

 

         Nikola sighed and rubbed his face. They had been experimenting with the snake beastie (Midori) on loan from Tokyo for over a month now. His team was trying to isolate the vampiric DNA from her to assess whether it was actually a strain of  _Sanguine Vampiris_  or a different mutation altogether. The unprecedented discovery of a genus beyond  _Sanguine Vampiris_  had made him eager for further research (the discovery being that he and the Sybarites were evolutionary cousins from another, more ancient species).

 

         However, Midori wasn’t faring well in New York despite the special containment tank and diet provided by Tokyo. They had to halt further phases of the experiment due to her declining health.

 

         “Don’t you have a specialist in this field?” Nikola asked wearily.

 

         Doctor Loeb shrugged. “We were hopeful for a herpetologist, actually, we’d been told one might be transferring from London. Looks like we missed the raffle, though.”

 

         Nikola looked like he was going to smack him upside the head. “Why didn’t you tell me? Nerds!” He stormed away from the stammering Doctor Loeb, pulling up the Sanctuary database on his tablet.

 

          _Two pending transfers to New York (interns)_. Ah, well that explained why he had only given this a cursory glance before. He hated the idea of eager, obnoxiously cheerful puppies running about the lace. But, needs must…one a political scientist, not his target…transferred to Monrovia. The other a herpetologist transferred to Berlin. Aha!

 

         Nikola angrily jabbed the extension for the Berlin Head and barked into his tablet, “Berkel!” The scientist did not look happy to see him.

 

         “What do you want, Tesla?” Nikola grinned. He liked Berkel for this reason and also never let his guard down for the same reason. The man never fumbled over any formalities and despite being very much under one hundred years old, treated Nikola like an unruly Serbian youth (something that offended his very proper German sensibilities).

 

         “You got a lizard vet I was supposed to.”

 

         Berkel frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Doctor Magnus specifically sanctioned the transfer, so take it up with her!” He hung up.

 

         Bastard. Nikola mused on what little Berkel had told him though. Helen had stepped in herself to divert the transfer. It could have been for any number of reasons: to annoy him, because New York already had one of the largest staff in the network, because he was already over budget for the quarter…

 

         When Nikola’s eyes finally skimmed across the intern’s name he was more surprised and shocked by the answer than he expected.

 

         Johnson…could…could this be personal?

 

         This opened up a whole host of questions that his fatigued mind was ill-prepared for, but still timidly chased. Was this a mere coincidence? A freak occurrence? Was he looking too much into this – but Robert and Katharine had no children…and if this truly was a blood descendant was she some grandniece of Robert’s? Or Katharine’s?

 

         And if so…were Helen’s reasons for intervening truly personal? Why…why would she want to keep this woman away from him?

 

         “Oh, Helen, perfect Helen, can you feel jealousy?” He muttered to himself. That he might be the reason for such irrational, petty behaviour was too heady a thought to pursue for too long at the moment. His curiosity over this mystery was stirring deeper.

 

         If Helen had barred this girl in secret, Nikola only saw fit that he make his inquiries discreetly as well.

 

***

 

         “Is it ready?” Henry looked anxious and slightly bug-eyed with his welder goggles still strapped to his head. Erika scrolled though their schematics and coding a final time and nodded. “Whenever you are.”

 

         “After you wet yourself then,” Will whispered to Alistair, who tried not to laugh. Helen leaned back against the desk, a cup of tea in hand and trying not to look too skeptical about the whole operation.

 

         “Alright.” Henry clapped his hands together. “To your stations!” The other HAP’s scrambled to different parts of the mechanical tower that had to be operated manually, as Henry settled himself down beside Erika.

 

         “Remember, lad,” Malcolm warned as he picked up the control board for the parabolic dish (or “Sector-Finding Device”), “We only have enough juice for one try.”

 

         Henry was sweating lightly. “I know. We’ll boot up once we we’re within 96% range of New York’s sensors. Hit it, old man.”

 

         Malcolm keyed in a command and the parabolic dish spun around as it locked in on New York’s frequency, slowing down and shuddering left or right as Malcolm adjusted the angle, chasing the signal.

 

         “85%...92%...87% - go back, go back!” Henry urged.

 

         “I know what I’m bloody doing!” he snapped, making micro-adjustments now almost by feel and instinct than calculation.

 

         “90%...92%...93 – 96%!” Henry flourished a finger at Alistair and Vera. “Propensity beam, go! When they’re fully powered, data burst go!”

 

         Will looked askance at Helen. While the Hap-team were visibly excited and tense, nothing seemed to be happening outwardly that he could see. Except for the dish fidgeting every now and again. He whispered, “I think I was expecting a laser show or something.” Helen merely rolled her eyes at him.

 

         Henry and Erika’s fingers were blurs over their keyboards. Henry barked, “Alistair, we’re losing you – alternate crystal three and refocus the beam.”

 

         Alistair held a compass to one of the crystal units in the tower and was adjusting its angle until Will saw the laser passing through it flux, and then refocus to a narrower point. It must have done something because Erika cried out, “We’re getting the first hit of data!”

 

***

 

         “What the…?” Sherman pushed his chair away from the computer he was using as the screen flickered black and his program froze. He smacked the side of the unit irritably, causing Nikola to have a mini heart attack and storm over.

 

         “What the hell have I told you about treating the equipment nicely!”

 

         Sherman pointed to the screen. “My zombies froze…oh wait, here it is again.” He grinned goofily at Tesla as the tinkling music of Plants Vs. Zombies blared through the speakers.

 

         Tesla gave him a look. “You come down and hog a station in my lab that could be used for processing raw data…to play Plants Vs. Zombies.”

 

         Sherman shrugged. “It has a better video card.”

 

         Tesla sighed, but then saw the screen flicker black again. His brow knitted into a frown. “What did you do?”

 

         “I didn’t do anything!”

 

***

 

         “Analysis?” Erika asked anxiously.

 

         Henry’s eyes were blurs as they skimmed over the files they had managed to decrypt. “Nothing, just departmental budgets.”

 

         “Isolate and save them anyway,” Helen said, sipping her cup of tea. She wasn’t expecting them to find anything of interest, but perhaps some evidence that her team was able to hack into his database would be a satisfying thing to gloat to Nikola later.

 

         “Malcolm, we need a new sector.”

 

         The grizzled man swore colourfully under his breath, many curses Will didn’t think existed on the other side of the pond, as he hammered in new commands to his sector-finding device. “Vera, love, turn down the data bursts we’re sending out by 0.17% please.”

 

         “We’ve locked in on something new, data coming in now,” Erika said.

 

         “No, no, no,” Henry panicked as he pounded away at his keyboard. “We’re hitting a firewall – sorry, Malcolm, but our data burst has to hit at 100% now, two rotations!”

 

***

 

         Nikola had shoved Sherman off the computer and had opened its binary mainframe to try and root out the source of the problem. So long as the moron hadn’t messed with anything in the master program then he wouldn’t be fired.

 

         Nikola’s keen eyes, which at this point saw past the ones and zeroes of binary, noticed a couple anomalies in the data strings, but they were small enough to have been the firewall re-updating.

 

         Never one to leave anything to chance, however, he opened the desk drawer and pulled out a slim device. Sherman looked on in interest, “What’s that?”

 

         It looked like handheld voltmeter and Nikola turned on the switch with a flick of his thumb. “EMF reader. I’m going to check our frequencies and make sure we don’t have any unwanted visitors.”

 

***

 

         “Analysis?”

 

         Henry shook his head at Erika. “No time, we’ll just have to save it all off the buffers and process it later. Come on, let’s get as much as we can.”

 

         Alistair fretted by the tower. “Our crystal units are degrading under the heat, Henry. Our propensity beam’s going to be compromised in less than a minute.”

 

         Henry called out to Malcolm. “How many more sectors can you find me in a minute?”

 

         “Three?”

 

         “Make them count.”

 

***

 

         Nikola stalked the grounds of his Sanctuary, looking carefully at the meter in his hand. Normally fluctuations in EMF readings were completely normal as electronic disturbances came from any and every source: cellphones, computers, magnets, radio wires…but New York had been designed to be his in every way, which included the dampening cloak of his EM shields.

 

         And he was picking up anomalous readings. He didn’t like it. Someone was playing with his toys…

 

         The meter blinked continuously in his hand as he came closer to the source of whatever was interrupting his harmonious, digital fortress.

 

***

 

         Erika blinked in confusion. “Wine cellar records?”

 

         Malcolm shrugged apologetically. “Our systems are twenty seconds away from being completely compromised, love – that’s the only sector I can lock in on now.”

 

         Erika looked a little disheartened, but Helen’s eyes held a spark in them as she said, “Process it.”

 

         Alistair called out nervously, “Fifteen seconds and counting. We have to be in and out  _now_.”

 

         Henry stroked the side of his computer unit, murmuring, “Come on, baby, just a little longer…”

 

***

 

         “You want to explain to me what this is?” A smooth, black device was slapped down onto the desk and Raymond winced. In fact, he felt very much like throwing up.

 

         Tesla lifted a cool eyebrow, fingers skimming over the surface of the device. “Crude, but surprisingly effective. I guess I hadn’t expected General Electric to use such a blunt tool to try and undermine me, that this has a bit of idiotic brilliance to it.”

 

         “They made me…” Raymond whispered into his chest, perhaps hoping that the ground would swallow him up where he stood.

 

         Tesla sighed, angrily flicking the remote hack off his desk so that it clattered to the ground. “Next time try to be more convincing to your dear pater of where your loyalties lie and maybe they’ll stop harassing you.”

 

         Raymond blinked, unsure of what he was hearing. He looked up confusedly at Nikola who was still glaring at him.

 

         “You’ve lost your vacation days for this quarter and you’re on rat clean up duty in the sewers for the next month. Now get out of my sight.”

 

         “You mean I can stay?” Raymond didn’t dare let any hope creep into his voice, but he felt the beginnings of warmth blooming in his chest.

 

         Tesla looked at him like he was the biggest idiot in the world…but not as if he were an enemy. “This piece of junk could only push against my firewalls, it didn’t have a hope in hell of penetrating them. It feels half-hearted, Edison. As do you. I won’t dismiss the irony or satisfaction of having one of you come over to the winning team.”

 

         Raymond allowed himself a small smile then, until the grin dropped just as suddenly from his face. “What do you mean…rat cleaning duty?”

 

***

 

         The tower groaned, spitting out angry sparks which Alistair was calmly spraying with a fire extinguisher. Henry sat back in his chair, exhausted, as a pre-programmed command on his computer played “We Are The Champions” as the last round of information was copied from the buffers and isolated to a safe drive.

 

         “Well, that comes to our next order of business,” Erika said smartly, resting her hands on Henry’s shoulders. “You need a nap.”

 

***

 

         “Alright, what have we got?”

 

         Henry was looking visibly less scruffy and haggard now that he had a chance to sleep. His lab was still a wreck Helen refused to step into until it was clean again, so he had hooked up their drive to the computer in her office. He was looking uncharacteristically grim after the HAPs Vs. Vampires victory, and Helen was growing concerned.

 

         “The most interesting files I dug up were, surprise surprise, in the wine cellar records. I…I honestly have no idea what he’s doing, Doc.”

 

         Helen sat down beside Henry, scrolling through the decrypted files herself and a hard knot began to twist her stomach. Baldly staring in front of her was evidence that Nikola had given his services to, bought the services of and in some cases stolen from the major denizens of organized crime in America and internationally. Direct transfers of large sums of money into New York Sanctuary’s account, and his own personal accounts…shipment records of black market abnormal goods, patents and pictorial evidence of weapon prototypes commissioned by cartels and gangs…

 

         Helen sat back, winded. This went beyond petty schemes and grandstanding. She was being confronted with the evidence of major corruption within the Sanctuary network, above even her jurisdiction…if this information wasn’t so heavily guarded it would bring Interpol and the United Nations down on Nikola’s head. If captured he’d be disposed of quietly and all traces of him erased, not difficult considering he was supposed to have been dead decades ago…and it would spark a witch hunt against the global network for harboring such incriminating deeds.

 

         Even she didn’t know how to react. One part of her wanted to smash the drive to little pieces to get rid of the files, another wanted to take up the matter with the U.N…but above all she knew she was out of her depth when she realized she wasn’t even angry with him. She was just scared.

 

         “What have you gotten yourself into?” She wondered aloud.

 

***

 

         Nikola was faintly amused as the hired muscle patted him down, quite thoroughly too, until they decided he was unarmed. He smoothed down the creases they had made in his suit, feeling at ease despite the several guns in the room because these stupid men didn’t know he didn’t need a weapon to slaughter them all.

 

         They also didn’t know Aureliano was prowling the rafter beams above them. Nikola was a man who believed in covering your bases.

 

         “Where’s the money?”

 

         Nikola lifted an eyebrow, trying to convey in the simple gesture all the contempt and disdain he felt for the brute in front of him. The Death Riders were crude, unsubtle (and unwashed for that matter), but were still…effective, in their own ham-handed way. He found most of the motorcycle-based gangs to be, but they were notoriously territorial and kept strict movements on every potential rival who came into New York. Nikola wanted their information.

 

         “You really think I’m going to walk around with a million dollars in cash on me?” Nikola plucked the breast lining of his jacket. “I just don’t have the pockets to be honest.”

 

         The men shifted aggressively around him, and unbeknownst to him Aureliano hid his face in his hands out of embarrassment up above.

 

         “The  _money_ , skinny.”

 

         Nikola bared his teeth. “Seems to be the only thing people notice about me. Here.” Nikola gestured for the man’s phone, unconcerned about the guns beginning to slip out of holsters. He drew up the man’s banking information on his smart phone and made a wireless transfer, holding up the screen so he could see that part of the deal was upheld.

 

         The brute grunted in surprise, but seemed satisfied. “Yeah, the White Hand have shown up. Been sniffing around, asking some questions.”

 

         “For a million dollars I’ll need more than that,” Nikola sneered.

 

         Just as the brute was about to launch into detail about his gang’s findings there was a sudden spate of gunfire thudding into the metal side of the warehouse from outside. Nikola heard the muffled cries of “come out, motherfuckers!” and the men around him had already whipped out their guns and were shooting at the doors.

 

         Idiots firing at targets that hadn’t even shown up yet…Nikola looked around for a shelving unit, or stacked boxes or anything so he could jump up and get out of the way. He saw Aureliano’s shadow moving nervously above him. Of all the times for a rival gang to show up and interrupt business…

 

         The doors burst down a second later and the warehouse erupted into chaos. The firefight was disorganized and a hectic spray of fire, that when Nikola transformed he realized he’d just have to cut his way through no matter who it was on the other side. Aureliano was already making his way down, trying to get to Nikola before the vampire was lost in the crush of bodies.

 

         “ _Fuck_!” Someone must have noticed the black eyes and teeth as gunfire from both sides trained on him. Growling, annoyed, Nikola whipped through the room knocking heads together and slashing his deadly talons through the air. A bloodlust took over him, his sense of smell overwhelming everything else, as men screamed and ran out of the way or continued to fire, their fear freezing them on the spot

 

         Nikola’s heart was pounding in his ears as an animal instinct took over him, informing his steps, his brute attacks and keeping him from being overwhelmed. He felt a roar rip from his throat though he couldn’t hear it, so caught up in the slash and hack and cloying scent of blood.

 

         Something hard gripped his shoulder and he whirled around, talons slashing the air. Aureliano jumped back out of harm’s way and slapped him soundly across the face. That brief flare of pain was enough to snap him out of the bestial reverie that had taken over. Panting, Nikola took in his surroundings.

 

         The warehouse was in shambles, splintered wood and scraps of metal littering the floor. There were also some bodies, whether downed by rival gunfire or him he wasn’t sure. He suddenly felt sick and weak at the knees, staggering and leaning against Aureliano.

 

         “I’m…I’m…” He had lost control so utterly and completely, and the realization of that paralyzed him with fear. The gnawing in his stomach and burn in his throat had him in a vice-like grip now. Aureliano, being something of a vampire himself, seemed to understand what he was trying to say.

 

         “You’re hungry.” He looked mildly disturbed, after all it was  _Sanguine Vampiris_  that had enslaved his people millennia before, but there was a hint of sympathy as well. Aureliano helped steady him to his feet. “Eat. You aren’t human. You live like one, you dress like one…but you deny something natural to you.”

 

         Nikola gasped, “I can’t.” though his body raged at him for his denial. Aureliano looked calmly, coldly at him and then to the men already dead on the floor.

"Eat." 


	10. Chapter 10

TEN  
  
***  
  
  
  
“A lot of these guys aren’t my friends anymore, Doc.” Kate looked sheepishly down at her feet. “I did steal from a lot of them.”  
  
  
  
“That’s fine. I just want you to do your best and find out what you can.”  
  
  
  
Kate nodded, pulling on her riding gloves. Helen was letting her use the motorcycle for snooping around. “Hank won’t tell me what’s going on, but it’s pretty big isn’t it?”  
  
  
  
Helen just gave her a grim sort of nod and looked meaningfully to Kate’s hand piece. “Be careful and pull out the second you feel uncomfortable.”  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
Nikola’s hand trembled slightly as he raised the bottle of wine to his lips. He didn’t really remember last night, and he had a sneaking suspicion his pale friend may have had a hand in that. Aureliano, Sybarite, halispirus vampirus…able to steal memories and genetic information through breath. How much silver mist had he stolen from Nikola to spare him?  
  
  
  
That morning when he’d woken he stumbled by a mirror to see that his eyes were still black. It took more concentration and effort than normal to hide his vampiric features.  
  
  
  
The most damning clue of course being that today he felt more alive than he had in decades. The world seemed sharper, brighter and more colourful. His sense of smell and hearing had heightened that he could pick out every soul moving in his Sanctuary. Most of all he felt a strength and power coursing through him…he felt like he was utterly unstoppable, some primordial force of nature.  
  
  
  
The wine wasn’t doing anything to dull his senses, and he knew he couldn’t hide in the dusty, dim cellar forever. But he’d wait until he didn’t feel so sharp, so strong...so good…  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
“I think she likes you, Ubuntu.” Sherman laughed as the large, female moth head-butted Ubuntu playfully (which almost knocked him off his feet) and drooled on him happily. Ubuntu tried not to grimace as he wiped the slime from his face.  
  
  
  
“She still feels affection for me that she did for her young.” He flicked the mucus from his fingers.  
  
  
  
Kelly chewed nervously on a thumbnail as she checked the other moths contained in the back of the van. “She shouldn’t be so active under the sedatives I gave her.”  
  
  
  
Sherman wasn’t concerned in the slightest. “Relax, Kelly, she’s not causing nay trouble. Besides, we don’t want them asleep for too long once we get to the park.” Sherman threw his empty coffee cup out the van window and peered into his rearview mirror. “Hey kiddo! What the hell are you doing?”  
  
  
  
Raymond was tucked in between the (now large) soft, white-furred bodies and napping contentedly. The low, gentle hum of the moths breathing was hypnotically soothing.  
  
  
  
Kelly glared at Sherman as she checked the last of the straps. “Leave him alone, he was scared enough coming out here.”  
  
  
  
Sherman sucked in his breath noisily, eyes concentrating on the ground. “Doc told us live fire, not stunners. Not my fault the kid’s scared of guns.”  
  
  
  
“So Doctor Tesla suspects we may face some harassment from this…White Hand?” Ubuntu had been asleep in his fevered coma when the New York operatives had found the painted symbol down in the sewers. While spooky, it had fled the immediate concern of most when nothing else that was strange had occurred. Only Sherman truly grasped the anxiety Tesla was feeling and believed it.  
  
  
  
“We’re not expecting any trouble,” he said calmly but like he had to explain this several times already, “we’ve just got to be more cautious right now.”  
  
  
  
Kelly was gently unfolding the young moths’ wings and feeling gently for their muscle growth. They had been kept longer than hoped, but luckily it wouldn’t disable their ability to learn to fly.  
  
  
  
“Jess, stop fretting.” Sherman chuckled from the driver’s seat. She glared at him again (Ubuntu discreetly looking away from a brewing fight), and snapped, “You’re being a real ass today.”  
  
  
  
“She’s not smarter than you,” Sherman said patiently and Kelly looked away embarrassed. She busied herself with checking the moths’ pulses. She mumbled grumpily under her breath, “Of course she isn’t.”  
  
  
  
Raymond opened his eye a sliver and saw Ubuntu wink at him. He winked back and closed his eyes again so he could continue pretending to be asleep and not intervene.  
  
  
  
“Lizards and scaly stuff,” Sherman gestured uselessly with his hands, “it’s just not your thing.”  
  
  
  
“Uh huh,” Kelly replied tonelessly.  
  
  
  
Never knowing when to shut up, Sherman brashly went on. “Sure it was a small, stupid thing you missed, but no one else knew that snake was just shedding. We’re not scientists-“  
  
  
  
“I am a scientist,” Kelly said quietly with a very dangerous edge to her voice. Raymond let out a quiet, what he hoped would be convincing, snore and Ubuntu just remained as still as possible.  
  
  
  
Sherman sighed, his patience running out. “Jess, I am trying to make you feel better-“  
  
  
  
“Quit trying,” she snarled.  
  
  
  
“So you fucked up!” Sherman threw his hands in the air for a brief second before slamming them down on the wheel again. “Suck it up and move on. I’m telling you it wasn’t a big deal, but I need you on your game again because you moping and second-guessing yourself or busy being mat at Tesla or new girl will screw us up more.” Sherman had been angrily jabbing the dashboard with his finger to punctuate the end of his rant.  
  
  
  
Kelly opened her mouth and shut it several times, angry but speechless. She finally settled for looking away and ignoring Sherman completely, hiding her face so he couldn’t see how much that had stung.  
  
  
  
Sherman must have picked it up though, because his anger dissipated just as quickly as it had come and he was left with regret. He drove in silence for a minute, slightly bashful and awkwardly drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as Kelly tried to pretend she was still examining the moths.  
  
  
  
Sherman finally spoke up with a too-casual, “She’s not prettier than you either, if you were worrying.”  
  
  
  
Kelly sneered back with a curt, “I wasn’t,” but was trying not to smile. Raymond and Ubuntu met eyes again and Ubuntu just gave a slight, weary shake of his head.  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
“Have you been feeding the birds?”  
  
  
  
Katie looked up, startled, from the book she was reading and saw an old woman with a plastic grocery bag for a headscarf glaring formidably down at her. Katie looked around her and saw that a crowd of pigeons, like splashes of gray and white paint, had settled around her feet and the park bench she was sitting on.  
  
  
  
“N-No,” she stammered, unsure of how to react to his woman, “I just have my coffee.” She held up the paper cup to demonstrate her point.  
  
  
  
The woman glared at her suspiciously and finally said, “Don’t feed ‘em, they’re flying rats!” before stomping away.  
  
  
  
Katie sat back mildly stunned and then couldn’t help but laugh to herself. Welcome back, Katie – proper New York fashion. With crazies in Central Park, cabbies that try to run people over and more artisan coffee on every corner than was really necessary. She closed her eyes and felt the sun warm her face. It was insane, but it was nice to be home again even if for a short while.  
  
  
  
There was a flutter of wings and coo’s, and Katie opened her eyes to see a slender man in an impeccable pinstriped suit striding towards her. The pigeons fled into the air and it was if he had arrived in a sea of birds. She smiled wryly as Nikola Tesla settled himself down on the bench beside her.  
  
  
  
“I was wondering when I’d get an official audience with the Head,” she said dryly. He smirked, tossing one leg carelessly over the other.  
  
  
  
“It’s a constant struggle shouldering all that responsibility,” Nikola began, lifting a mischievous eyebrow, “a whole team of people trying to make me do work. Ugh.”  
  
  
  
Katie took a careful sip of her coffee, trying not to laugh. “Dr. Berkel did warn me about you.”  
  
  
  
“All of it true, I hope.”  
  
  
  
“A couple more days and the shadow naga should have recovered fully from her shed. The humidity levels were really inappropriate given her condition-“  
  
  
  
Nikola shushed her with a wave of his hand. “Don’t be boring, I’m not interested in discussing Sanctuary business.”  
  
  
  
She looked at him curiously. “Then what are you interested in?”  
  
  
  
Nikola played with the collar of his shirt, his fingertips absently skimming the surface of the EM prison nestled in the hollow of his throat. He could see everything, every tiny minutiae, including that curious genetic defect she had in her eyes…a splinter of blue amidst a sea of green. A trait so very rare, so very telling…  
  
  
  
“Have lunch with me.”  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
Kate sped through the streets of Old City, the motorcycle eating up miles of road beneath her. She had already dropped in on three of her old contacts, and thankfully the clip in her gun was still full. She really didn’t want to have to resort to that.  
  
  
  
No one had really heard anything of what was happening in New York apart from vague rumours. Most of the Old City goons were too concerned with being Top Dog in town to worry about broadening their interests.  
  
  
  
But Sal (Mehndi) had let her in on that he’d been approached by a couple of no-names for a contract on boats. Boats? It seemed odd, but the way Sal had described the men made Katie’s sixth sense twitch. It may have been nothing, but her gut was telling her to follow up. Sal had turned down the work, he really didn’t have the right connections to make it happen anyway, but he told her the Lam Brothers were.  
  
  
  
As Kate made her way to the marina she felt her gun grow heavy in her mind. The Lam Brothers had hired her a grand total of once before as a freelancer. She really didn’t have much in the way of clout or good history built up with them, and they didn’t mess around. One wrong move and they might shoot her as she walked in the door.  
  
  
  
Kate saw the docks and parked her motorcycle a safe distance away, out of sight. She saw the marina office where one of the brothers usually were, but the marina was disquietingly empty. Where had all the boats gone? There was only one small skiff still tied up at the docks. Kate eased her gun out of her holster as she made her way down, hugging cover. Well, if no one was home…  
  
  
  
She barely registered an orange flash when there was a hand over her mouth and a knife to her throat. Reflexively, she brought her arm up to the slide under the hold and kicked behind her. Her foot didn’t connect as the attacker disappeared and then reappeared again in front of her.  
  
  
  
Her fun in his face, Kate’s mind finally caught up to her movements and stunned, she said, “John?”  
  
  
  
He looked just as surprised as her, lowering his knife hand. “What on earth are you doing here?” He strode urgently over, taking her arm and dragging them back into cover. They had caused a bit of a commotion.  
  
  
  
“I could ask you the same thing,” she hissed, ducking low.  
  
  
  
He said nothing but motioned her forward and together they crept up to the marina office, making sure they weren’t being watched or followed. Kate gave a surreptitious glance inside the office window. “There’s no one inside.”  
  
  
  
John raised an eyebrow, the news didn’t put his mind at ease. “Do you get the feeling, Kate, that everything is a little…”  
  
  
  
“…too quiet? Yeah.” Kate trained her gun on the door as John hugged the side and picked the lock. There was a click of the tumblers and he pushed it open.  
  
  
  
The first thing that hit Kate was the smell. And then she saw Wilfred Lam sprawled on the floor of his office with his throat cut. Her eyes stung and she coughed into her sleeve. “Oh man…”  
  
  
  
John’s face was grim and he held out his arm barring her from entering. “I don’t think we should step inside.” He scanned the room, looking for something, and then pointed to the side of the desk computer. “There.”  
  
  
  
Slightly smudged, but stark white against the black monitor was a paint-stamped handprint. John pulled out a phone from his coat and took a picture of it.  
  
  
  
Kate’s eyes were still watering and she was trying hard not to look at the slain man. “You’re telling me Genius is mixed up in this mess?”  
  
  
  
John snorted, putting away his phone and carefully shutting the door. “He’s no genius.” John then took Kate’s arm and teleported them away from the grisly scene.  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
Katie noticed that he didn’t eat, but nursed glass after glass of wine. Though he never once gave the hint of being drunk. He didn’t seem interested at all in her credentials but kept urging her to speak about her background. Growing up in New York…why she left for school…  
  
  
  
They were sitting at the bar of the restaurant then, Tesla nursing an expensive bottle of red, and she was idly stirring the stick of her cocktail.  
  
  
  
Katie noticed that his eyes were unfocused, and in the dim light of the bar they looked almost black. “…you don’t care at all about my exchange in the Galapagos.” Katie finally said, lifting a knowing eyebrow in answer to his mock-innocent expression. “So why am I here if you don’t want to pick my brain?”  
  
  
  
Nikola sipped at his glass, not disturbed at all by the sudden turn in conversation. Casually he asked, “What do you remember of your grandmother?”  
  
  
  
Katie stirred the cocktail stick before lifting it up and sucking thoughtfully on the end of it. “Not too much to be honest…she died when I was younger, maybe about fourteen. She was happy in Maine, but I think she missed New York. She had many photo albums and scrapbooks she liked to show me when I came to visit.”  
  
  
  
His eyes were just slivers now behind a curtain of lashes. “Do you know anything of your great aunt?”  
  
  
  
Katie frowned slightly and chose her next words carefully. She had an idea of what he wanted to know…but she wasn’t sure where this was going. “My grandmother showed me pictures of her, yes…and of my great uncle Robert. She actually has old copies of Century Magazine, some of your exploits.” Katie laughed a little self-consciously. “Of course at the time I didn’t know you were a vampire and very much alive.”  
  
  
  
“I was very good friends with Robert and Katharine when I first came to New York.”  
  
  
  
“I know.”  
  
  
  
He could hear her heartbeat, the near imperceptible quickening of her breath. “How did you come by your surname?”  
  
  
  
That caught her off guard, he could see her pupils narrow. “My dad’s last name is Johnson.”  
  
  
  
Nikola nodded thoughtfully, a smirk curling around his lips. “So that is how ‘Kate Johnson’ lives again.”   
  
  
  
The growing flush on her neck and cheeks, the warm breath and beat of her heart…Nikola could smell Katharine on her, could hear Katharine in her ribcage, and he was being driven half-mad to know if she tasted like Katharine as well.  
  
  
  
“You have,” he lifted a finger, “a pigment defect in your eye. It’s a very rare genetic trait. Your great aunt had it.”  
  
  
  
Her hand went up to her eye a little self-consciously, skimming the skin underneath it. Her heart was beating a little quicker now and her cheeks glowed pinker.  
  
  
  
“You remind me very much of her.”  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
“The White Hand.” Will dropped the case file on the table and it made a huge ‘thump’. “Serious movers and shakers in South America.”  
  
  
  
“And now it looks like they’re muscling in on our turf,” Kate said, idly flipping through the textbook-thick document.  
  
  
  
Will flipped to some appropriate page and spread them out so everyone gathered could see. “They may be based in South America, but their dealings are international. They’re a gang with a lot of power, more like a political terrorist cell. Their end goal is to be able to dictate international policy on a global scale for the betterment of their ‘nation’.” He jabbed an accompanying photograph in the file. “And they bankrolled Vuarez.”  
  
  
  
Vuarez, an evolutionary biologist and abnormal that had worked with the Asuncion Sanctuary in Paraguay. He had also orchestrated the brutal murders of several young women and an explosion of the Old City Sanctuary to draw out and abduct John Druitt. He was now very much dead.  
  
  
  
“What is their abnormal agenda?” Helen asked.  
  
  
  
“They don’t follow Vuarez’s philosophy on the human-abnormal relationship. They seem indifferent about it actually, but the White Hand is very interested in technology from Praxis. Anything that can give them a military or political advantage so their claims become legitimate.”  
  
  
  
Henry turned his laptop around so they could see the recent communication he had received. “And now they’re in New York.” On the computer screen were the pictures of the White Hand stamp down in the sewers of Penn Station.  
  
  
  
Helen clasped her hands together and rested her chin atop. Her eyes narrowed as she thought, busily sorting through options and also trying to determine where her instincts were leading her. Finally she looked to Kate. “Do you have any old personas that could be active in the field?”  
  
  
  
Kate blinked, unsure if Helen was really asking her for that. Helen sensed her reticence and nodded. “Bank accounts, driver’s license, passports, identification – and any digital footprint on their servers.”  
  
  
  
“Maybe,” Kate said and shrugged. “Honestly, I’ll have to dig around. There may be one that could still be used, but it will take a bit of time to get her re-established again.”  
  
  
  
Helen nodded. A Grim sort of smile was spreading on her face again, one that said this was not a woman you anted to get in the way of. “It sounds just fine, Kate.”  
  
  
  
Henry could feel the creeping tension and intensity building in the room and it made the hair on his arms stand up. He looked nervously at Will and mouthed, “What are they talking about?”  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
She had been a little nervous at first when his teeth sharpened into fangs, but he showed her how he could retract them. He whispered promises into her hair that he would be gentle, even though the hunger within him was now like a molten core of magma, threatening to take control completely.  
  
  
  
“This is…this is kind of weird, isn’t it?” She gasped as she writhed beneath him, his hand roaming the soft planes of her legs.  
  
  
  
He was a little breathless too as she jerked off his shirt. “Yes, it’s very weird. Do you want to stop?”  
  
  
  
“No.” She shook her head and pulled him down over her, hands exploring his arms and neck.  
  
  
  
He bent down and placed a trail of kisses on the soft skin behind her ear, where the walls were thinnest and he could almost taste and feel the blood beneath. Katharine liked him to pay attention there, it always made her spine tingle. She breathed the same way, the quickening rise and fall of her chest as he warmed her.  
  
  
  
The feel of her bare skin against his was alarming and electrifying. A lifetime ago when it was in the dim confines of his workshop there was always a barrier of shifting lace, like the moving plates of the earth’s surface, evolution and change on a shattering scale. His hands shook then and it was only with her sweet urgings that he violated her marriage.  
  
  
  
He wasn’t shaking or reticent now as he touched and stroked and sucked this free woman who smelt like Katharine, and breathed like Katharine and when he looked into her eyes with that splinter of blue he saw only Katharine.  
  
  
  
She was willing and urging for him to take her, but as the points of his teeth scraped against her neck again he felt a shiver run through her. His Katharine had been fearless, she had never been afraid of anything. He soothed this one and kissed her slowly instead to show her it was alright and make her forget her fear in the rhythmic thrusting of their bodies. Then, when she was delirious with lust and need and lost, he bit her.  
  
  
  
His tongue swirled around the small wound on her shoulder and he could feel her body temperature rise. She liked this, she found pleasure in the sensation, and he drank from her as he pushed them forward.  
  
  
  
Like the taste of any human, he blood exploded on his tongue like a flash of light, surging through him with the raw power of a lightning storm and he felt like screaming as the brilliance hurt as well as nurtured. There was something else too, like the lingering final note of a perfume, and it brought him back to New York, back to Central Park, back to the Wardenclyffe tower, back to the lonely tear-stained letters of friends slipping away and a grave with a woman’s name.  
  
  
  
The elemental inside its immutable cage swirled and roared with delight.  
  
  
  
***  
  
  
  
When John appeared on the rooftop of New York Sanctuary in the dead of the night, it wasn’t with the expectation of running into anyone. He felt himself jump a little then when he appeared four feet in front of Nikola, who had his elbows resting on the ledge and was peering at the city. John tried to shake off the discomfort of being surprised. He didn’t move as fast as he used to…  
  
  
  
“Scare you, old boy?” Nikola chuckled, his voice deep and guttural. John approached him cautiously, taking in the changes of the other man’s face. Nikola’s eyes were black and glistening, his features sharper and more sunken.  
  
  
  
John felt the hair prickle on the back of his neck…he might have been slightly dulled but he never mistrusted his gut-feelings. He leant against the roof-ledge, eyeing his companion carefully. He could see the small blue sphere nestled under Nikola’s throat, the black mass inside undulating and swirling anxiously.  
  
  
  
“It’s woken up.” His voice was barely above a whisper.  
  
  
  
Nikola’s eyes flashed black for a moment before settling back into their cold gray-blue. “It doesn’t sleep forever.”  
  
  
  
“Are you sure that EM shield of yours protects you from everything?”  
  
  
  
Nikola considered him coolly before answering in measured tones. “Trust me when I say I haven’t given you occasion yet to say ‘I told you so’.”  
  
  
  
John took a step forward, his hand snaking out to grab Nikola’s shirt. “If anything happens to Helen-“  
  
  
  
John felt something sharp pierce and break the skin on his hand. Nikola had grabbed the offending hand and his grip was like a steel vice. Black talons had shot out his fingertips and John felt his own arm shake with exertion. The little twerp was much stronger than him.  
  
  
  
“It won’t,” Nikola hissed before letting go of John’s hand, lip curling with disdain. He turned his gaze back to the lights of the streets below and John vanished in an orange flash.


	11. Chapter 11

ELEVEN

***

 

         The chirping was beginning to grate on his ears. It was a hundred times more deafening in his current state, like a flock of obnoxious lovebirds shrieking in his skull. Growling, Nikola rolled over in his bed to slam an irate hand down on his tablet.

 

         “Tesla,” he barked. “Care to tell me why I’m being disturbed in the morning?”

 

         He heard tittering in background and Kelly’s voice piping, “Does he know it’s already two?” and Ubuntu’s low tones, “Obviously we have woken him.”

 

         “Shut up, shut up – give me that.” Nikola heard a scuffle and Sherman’s voice rang clearer from his tablet. “I think you better get up for this, doc. Captain Ferrera is at the door.”

 

         Head of the local district the New York Sanctuary’s estate fell under. Nikola groaned. “You outrank her, tell her to go away.”

 

         “She brought a special agent.”

 

         Nikola frowned, massaging his temples. Wakefulness was taking a firmer hold of him now despite his reluctance. “FBI?”

 

         “CIA.”

 

         Nikola cursed quietly under his breath. “I’ll be down in ten.” He switched his tablet off and sunk back into his pillow. He could hear the soft ‘clink’ of a wine bottle rolling on the floor.

 

         “Duty calls?”

 

         Nikola looked over to see Katie lazily propping herself up on an elbow, her eyes still soft and heavy with sleep. He settled his arm around her and kissed her lightly. She smoothed his hair, it had stuck up in funny angles while they were sleeping, and then shoved him out of bed. “Away with you. Your minions await.”

 

***

 

         “Is she competent?”

 

         “Yes.” Kate checked the clip in her gun before carefully stowing it away out of sight. She tapped John’s shoulder and he passed her the binoculars.

 

         “Can she be trusted?” He insisted.

 

         Kate snorted. “No. I’ve never trusted her. But that’s why she’s good.”

 

         Kate peered through the binoculars to the restaurant across the street. She and John were hidden underneath the tarp on a rooftop adjacent. She was following the movements of a slim, dark-haired woman who was having what looked like a casual lunch with a friend. You could only see the bare outline of the gun concealed in her dress if you knew to look for it.

 

         “Genius is being kept out of the loop for this, right?” Kate snapped her chewing gum impatiently.

 

         John sighed gustily beside her. “My lips are sealed.”

 

         The woman and her dining companion were laughing now, both of their smartphones out and sharing pictures. Kate tried to ignore the tight feeling in her gut. You always had to battle nerves and unease doing a stake out. “So why are you doing all this behind his back any way?”

 

         She put the binoculars down and John gave her a loaded, too-casual shrug as he fiddled with his own phone. “Nikola asks me to help him, uses my abilities and pushes me around like a chess piece. But I’m kept in the dark about a lot. I don’t like being blind to the bigger picture.”

 

         Kate nodded sagely, pulling the used gum from her mouth and flicking it off the rooftop. “You’re scared.”

 

         John made a dry, curious noise in the back of his throat, arching an eyebrow. “Funny, I don’t recall saying that.”

 

         “You don’t know everything that’s going on so you can’t account for what you’re being asked to do. And now it’s feeling like something pretty big and not so good, and you’re wondering if the right move is to disappear. You don’t know whose blood is on your hands.”

 

         She met his eyes briefly and flashed him a mirthless smile. “I used to work for the Cabal before the Sanctuary picked me up. Remember?”

 

         John smirked back, his eyes a little warmer and he couldn’t help but laugh lightly. “Are you giving me a life lesson, Miss Freelander?”

 

         Kate rolled her eyes and popped a fresh stick of gum in her mouth. She ignored John’s low chuckles and picked up the binoculars again. Urgently, she tapped John’s arm. “They’re on the move.”

 

***

 

         “Special Agent Stahl.” The woman stuck her hand out, her ice blue eyes trying to crinkle in what might have been a reassuring smile, but never achieving any genuine warmth. Nikola’s upper lips curled slightly in distaste for any physical contact with this woman. He didn’t shake her hand.

 

         “I don’t recall inviting you into my house.” He could see Kelly flashing him a silent warning from across the hall, but ignored her.

 

         She smirked, pushing back a strand of her white-blond hair, thoroughly unruffled by his cold welcome. Nikola didn’t like the look of her. She looked like the type of woman who thrived on resistance and chewing up people. She gave him another disingenuous smile and said, “I’ll be frank with you, Doctor Tesla – your organization here is under an investigation that is a matter of national security.”

 

         He bared his teeth in an amused grin. Government toadies always _loved_ trying to scare you with threats of ‘national security’. He folded his arms across his chest. “Well, Special Agent Scully, I suggest you return to your superiors and advise them to take this matter up with the Chief Secretary of Defense with the UN instead of bothering me personally. You’ll find that what I do here is well above your pay grade.”

 

         She gave him a smile that made him uneasy, as if she had been hoping he would say exactly that. “Your work here with abnormals is not why I’m here, Doctor, and is not a matter for concern. Is there somewhere private we can speak?”

 

         Nikola saw Sherman glance nervously around, though the main foyer was relatively empty. Nikola sniffed. “No. There isn’t.”

 

         She shrugged nonchalantly and pulled a file from her briefcase, handing it to him. “Someone within your organization has connections to various criminal rings and terrorist cells. Obviously, your responsibility to uphold the Sanctuary charter is foremost in your mind and your cooperation will be invaluable.”

 

         Nikola lifted an eyebrow at Sherman, not even bothering to take the offered file. “I thought you said your friend Mahmoud just owned a shawarma cart.”

 

         Sherman shrugged. “Best in town.”

 

         Agent Stahl grinned, though it was becoming more rigid. “Cute…very cute. Well, Doctor Tesla, my presence here today was a courtesy to you. The CIA already has its warrants to monitor and post surveillances on all members of your team and you.”

 

         “ _Indulge_ me.”

 

         She left the file on the small table behind her, pulling out her sunglasses. “I’ll be watching you.” She showed herself out the door.

 

         It was only until he was sure that Agent Stahl was in her car that Nikola felt the acid bubble boiling in his chest burst. With a snarl he tipped the table over in the foyer, the file spilling its contents over the floor. Sherman played awkwardly with his lower lip, pretending not to see.

 

         “Get Edison to clean that up,” Nikola growled as he stalked off.

 

***

 

         “Can’t you just invite them round for tea, flash your winning smile and use that colonial charm on them?”

 

         Helen affected her usual air of exasperation when speaking to Nikola and rolled her eyes. “What have you done this time?”

 

         He looked outraged. “Nothing! I’m an innocent! And I can’t keep helping your hairy creeps and monsters with government spooks breathing down my neck.”

 

         Helen shrugged. “My hands are tied, Nikola. This is something you need to deal with on your own as Head.”

 

         He sulked. “I’m too upset with you to even banter.”

 

         She winked at him and said, “Don’t forget, it’s good to be king” and closed her computer. Agent Stahl smirked overtop her cup of coffee, reclined comfortably in her chair.

 

         “I don’t know how you deal with him, Helen.”

 

         Helen picked up her cup of tea. “Patience comes with years…” She chuckled a little. “Although with him it feels like a hundred years is lacking.”

 

         Agent Stahl smiled, her features much softer now than they had been when she was on duty. When she had embraced Helen with her greeting “it’s been too long” her hands had lingered by Helen’s waist a touch longer than necessary.

 

         “We’ve only had surveillance on him for forty-eight hours, and as you said any audio or visual recording device we attempted just received white noise.”

 

         Helen nodded thoughtfully. “He generally creates an EM disruptor shield about his person in public for that exact purpose.”

 

         “Yes, but,” Stahl slid a folder across the table, “long range telephoto lenses don’t need wireless frequencies to work.”

 

         Helen felt an uneasy twinge in her stomach. She and Nikola had pulled outrageous stunts on each other over the years…but the pictures inside the folder felt like a line being crossed. She didn’t know if she truly wanted to be complicit with such an invasion, despite having put it in motion.

 

         “Generally he’s stayed within the Sanctuary except for a couple excursions, always accompanied by the same woman…”

 

         Helen felt her heart twinge and opened the folder. Agent Stahl continued. “We’re unsure of her connection, she isn’t on our list of New York operatives – I just wanted your confirmation on keeping her on our watch list.”

 

         Though the intrusion was still making her stomach roil with guilt, Helen couldn’t tear her eyes away from the candid snapshots of Nikola walking with Katie Johnson…hand resting in the small of her back…stopping for a glass of wine on a patio…playing with her hair…

 

         Helen swallowed a dark, bitter lump in her throat. “She’s part of the Sanctuary network.” She closed the folder and passed it back to Stahl. “But keep an eye on her.”

 

         Stahl had a question lingering on her lips, but wisely remained silent. “Of course, Doctor Magnus.”

 

***

 

         The woman paused, exhaling very slowly as she felt a knife blade resting gently against her throat. By the placement of the blade she knew any sudden movement on her part would only result in bad news for her. Time to let her visitor take charge of the situation.

 

         “I’m going to sit down, is that all right?”

 

         She heard a mellifluous, pleasant voice say, “That is acceptable.” He allowed her to rest on one of the shipping crates of the warehouse. He was a very handsome man with alabaster skin, near black eyes and long, silvery hair. The knife never left her throat.

 

         “Did you want to take my gun? It’s in the back of my jeans.”

 

         He was still smiling warmly and pleasantly, as if they were discussing the news over morning coffee. “It is of no concern to me. Why are you here?”

 

         “My business associates were hoping to set up a meeting with Doctor Manhattan.”

 

         “Ahh,” he said, “you are in luck. You may speak with me.”

 

         “Are you the doctor?”

 

         “No, but I can relay the message.”

 

         She nodded and slowly reached into her jeans pocket, pulling out a memory card. “Give him this. We hope to be in touch soon.”

 

***

 

         “Is she going to bite me?”

 

         “Only if you make her angry.” Katie heard the nervous intake of breath beside her and smiled at Raymond, taking pity on him. She lifted the shadow naga from her container, watching as the snake-like beast coiled itself docilely around her arms. “It’s fine, pet her. Follow the direction of her scales.”

 

         Fascinated, Raymond ventured out hesitant fingers and stroked the bright green scales with the dark swirl patterns. His eyes lit up at the coolness and unexpected smooth texture as the muscles of the naga rippled underneath his fingertips.

 

         “You never had pets as a kid?” Katie asked.

 

         Raymond glanced up nervously with his crooked smile. “My mother had a cat named Mr. A.”

 

         “What did the ‘A’ stand for?”

 

         “Awful. And he was.”

 

         Katie laughed and gently placed Midori back inside her tank. There were still a few scraps of shed skin sticking to her, but those would brush away in time. Since the CIA agent had come calling to the Sanctuary, Doctor Tesla had suspended most active operations except for the reconstruction of the Underground. Any team members that had to journey to the ruins of Penn Station were taken there directly by John Druitt. Katie had noticed that during the uneventful few days that had followed she had a shadow following her around the laboratory and finally told Raymond to just help her with feedings.

 

         “How long are you staying here for?” He looked at her with puppy-like eyes, and she didn’t know why but it made her feel a little bad.

 

         “Not much longer I don’t think…gosh, that reminds me.” She made her way to one of the computers. “I need to check in with Dr. Berkel…hopefully he isn’t so annoyed with my extended time here he’ll still have me back.”

 

         Raymond sat dutifully down beside her, shielding his eyes endearingly when she typed in her password to log onto the network. She heard a denying ‘bloop’ and an error message blocking her access. “What?” She tried her password again. Denied.

 

         “Do you want me to try?” Raymond leant over and logged into his Sanctuary account. He ran a general search on her name and instantly a message appeared saying her account had been frozen and flagged.

 

         Katie stared at the screen in horror and in a quiet voice asked, “Can you find Doctor Tesla for me, please?”

 

***

 

         He had found her crying in the locker room for the main lab, Edison with a comforting arm around her shoulder (though the boy beat a hasty retreat when he saw Nikola coming down the hall). Nikola’s eyes had narrowed and darkened slightly when he saw the sheepish look in Edison’s eyes and the way the boy’s hand lingered on her shoulder, but decided to ignore it for the time being. There was something more concerning.

 

         She held up her phone, her silent, hiccough-like sobs subsiding quickly as she steeled her composure. Her voice held firm, she had obviously mastered hiding her disappointment quickly over the years, but he could smell the salt lingering on her eyelashes. “Dr. Berkel told me I no longer have a position with him in Berlin. I’ve apparently been put under investigation with the CIA, and as I’m still in a probationary period with the Sanctuary, it’s effectively blacklisted me in the network.”  
  


         Nikola took the phone away from her and set it down on the bench, replacing his arm around her shoulders. He murmured soothingly into her hair. “You won’t be the first person in the Sanctuary to have a government watch on them… I’ll sort this out with Helen.”

 

         She shook her head feebly, and he saw a touch of fear in her eyes. “He told me he was acting under her recommendations.”

 

         Something flared up inside Nikola then, and the anger that had flashed in his eyes must have been dark enough that he saw her face tremble slightly. He pressed a light kiss to her forehead to reassure her that his anger wasn’t directed to her, but his rage was so that he could not speak and merely withdrew and exited down the hallway. He needed to go to Old City now…and even needing Johnny Boy to take him there wasn’t enough to make him hesitate for a moment.

 

***

 

         Kate nearly jumped out of her skin when Druitt and Tesla materialized in front of her in the Sanctuary hallway, almost causing her to drop her soft drink. “What the hell are you doing here?”

 

         Tesla ignored her completely, stalking off down the hallway. Kate saw the nervous expression on John’s face and knew this was not going to be a pleasant visit. She called up the stairs, “Hank? Will? Get down here.”

 

         Henry rounded the corner, nearly bumping into Tesla at Kate’s cry. “Whoa, when did you-“

 

         Nikola rudely shoved him aside. “Don’t tempt me, wolf-boy. Not today.” Affronted, Henry looked to John and Kate bewildered. John sighed slightly, and followed Nikola. It seemed he was the only person here who would be able to keep any blood being spilt on the floor.

 

         Though when Nikola finally made it to Helen’s office, he slammed the door in John’s face. John bit back his anger at being treated so rudely, knowing his rage would achieve nothing. He was getting better at patience, it seemed. The door suddenly swung open again with Will stumbling out, before it slammed shut once more.

 

         Will looked at him incredulously. “Can you believe this guy?”

 

         “All too well.”

***

 

         Helen’s mouth had fallen open ready to yell in outrage at the rude entrance, but she worked her jaw instead and coldly asked, “Something troubling you, Nikola?”

 

         He strode angrily over to her desk, stopped, and then began to pace. He looked as if he were working himself into a rage, or trying unsuccessfully to bottle one.

 

         “You’ve startled everyone and upset my evening. Spit it out.”

 

         He didn’t sit, but he did stop pacing, placing his hands on the edge of her desk and leaning in towards her. “What do you think you’re playing at?” His voice was icy cold.

 

         “Excuse me?” Helen slammed down the pen she had been writing with. “Here you come barging into my home-“

 

         Nikola interrupted her. “You’ve blacklisted the intern.”

 

         Helen stared at him angrily for a moment, and then picked up her pen again, finishing the few signatures needed on the document she had been working on. “I didn’t bring the CIA to your door, Nikola.”

 

         He reached out and closed his hand over hers, stilling the pen. Helen hid her alarm, and was forced to look into his eyes. She was surprised to see they were blue-grey…she had half expected them to be vampiric black. This was almost worse.

 

         His voice was deadly quiet. “You protect everyone in this network. _Everyone_. Scientists, doctors, journalists, political refugees – you have never turned someone away or left them out of the cold. Even to your detriment. But you’ve let Katie hang out to dry.”

 

         Helen swallowed, her skin getting cold. She found it took a bit of effort to remain calm and seemingly careless. “This is for her protection, Nikola. I don’t know what it is you’re doing…but you’ve hidden it from everyone. From Declan, from _me_ …and it’s putting your people in danger. This girl is an innocent. If she’s removed from any of your activities, she’ll be saved from the fallout.”

 

         Nikola released her hand quickly, taking a step back. He looked at her as if he couldn’t believe what she was saying, and then laughed.  “Oh yes, we all need to be protected from the big bad vampire…”

 

         That felt like a slap across the face. Helen felt her anger snap and spat, “As if you care for the people who get hurt by your actions!”

 

         Her anger seemed to fuel his and he shot back, “Do _you_? Do you _really_? It’s all right for Helen Magnus to take risks, to put herself and other people in danger, to get someone hurt – but if anyone else tries it then it’s selfish! No one else can possibly do what you do.”

 

         Quietly, acidly, she said, “No, they can’t.”

 

         Nikola rested his hands on her desk again, leaning in. “This isn’t about what I’m doing for the Sanctuary.” When she remained silent he dug in again. “We’ve known each other for over a hundred and fifty years, Helen, so let’s not pretend as if we have any secrets from each other.”

 

         “Sometimes it feels like all we have is secrets…” Helen couldn’t look at him just then, her eyes lowered as if trying to mask some unspoken pain. Though she knew how futile the effort was, because he was right. Damn him, but he usually was. There wasn’t another being on the planet who knew her as well as he did. She asked quietly, “Does she really mean that much to you?”

 

         He looked at her incredulously, his hands recoiling. Perhaps she was hoping for this to soften him, for him to fall into guilt again, but the deepening betrayal in his eyes just made her feel worse.

 

         “Have any of them? Hmm?” He began pacing again, and Helen clenched her hands together so tightly she could feel her nails cutting into the palm of her hand.

 

         Helen found that all the anger she felt, while still there, had hardened into a lump in her stomach. Instead, she was scared and so terribly sad. This was an encounter that perhaps had been a hundred years coming, and she was afraid of how it would end. She was also afraid of what it meant…that through all the vast amounts of love and friendship they had there were also years of poison.

 

         “Go back then,” she murmured, “go back to your game.”

 

         “My game? Oh yes, how delightfully insulting. There’s been only one game, but it’s been over a century in the playing.” He looked at her, coldly then, as if he couldn’t understand in this moment what kept him coming back to her side. “We’re both immortal, Helen. No one else knows what that feels like, not just seeing people go, but that when we look to the horizon we know there is no ending. Our temporary companions are just that – temporary. But I never give mine any illusions to that.”

 

         Helen felt that invisible slap again and her eyes shot up to his, flashing. “Be careful of what you say next, Nikola.”

 

         He smirked, a cold, loveless thing. “Really? What was the last one you had, that lemur woman or whoever? Charlotte? How many nights did she go to sleep wondering if you thought of her too? Or the countless ones before.”

 

         Helen rose slowly to her feet, trembling. “I said, be careful of what you’re saying, Nikola.”

 

         “Or the team you have here? How many people have loved you, Helen, thinking you love them in return? Of course, you must feel protective of them, feel some passing affection for them – but how can you love something that is only there for such a short time?”

 

         She struck him then, so hard his head snapped back and an angry red mark was left on his cheek. He looked at her sourly, but felt the heat rising on his cheek with a tinge of regret. The acid began to bleed away from his voice, replaced with that ineffable sadness.

 

“Of course…Helen Magnus knows how to love…maybe she’s the only one who knows how to.” He swallowed back some more hateful words and tried to shake the last of the anger from his face. “I’ve never cared about the detours you’ve made. Heaven forbid you should feel lonely.”

 

Helen felt like striking him again, but he stepped back deftly from her, a defiant look in his eyes as if challenging her to prove him wrong. “And is that what you’re feeling right now, Nikola? Lonely?”

 

She saw the wound in his eyes that was quickly bricked up again…but it seemed she was the only one observant enough to catch those small moments. He took another step back from her, and this time she was sure whatever ugliness they had been flinging at each other was over. She felt tired then, and sorry. She reached out for his hand, slowly, because she knew he was easily startled by being touched.

 

“She isn’t Katharine. Katharine’s dead.”

 

His hand snapped back to his side as if she had burned him and she saw his entire body shake. Seething, he hissed. “I _know_.” Turning sharply on his heel he strode to the door. Before disappearing through it he said, “I’m not the one seeing her ghost everywhere.” And then he was gone.

 

***

 

         Helen didn’t cry, her eyes remained unmarred except for the few pricks of moisture when the wind whipped up a spray of dust into her face as she stared down at Old City from her rooftop. She felt too hollow and too ashamed to be allowed to feel sorry for herself, although she didn’t know what else you could call it sitting up alone outside.

 

         She heard the muffled crackle behind her and John’s footsteps as he made his way over to her. She held out a hand behind her and when he came close enough, grasped his arm and pulled him to sit down beside her. He did, hesitantly, and she laid her head against his shoulder.

 

         “He’ll be back to his normal self when he’s done sulking, you know.”

 

         Helen laughed mirthlessly, shaking her head in shame. “Yes, but do I wait a week or a decade for it to blow over?”

 

         John shifted slightly so he could rest his arm behind her, unsure of whether he should embrace her or not and deciding to just let her lean on him as she wanted. ‘We’re old, Helen…we’re very old. We’ve had a lot more time than most to be horrible to each other, but it will pass.” He chuckled lightly. “Otherwise we’d have no one left to drink with.”

 

         She looked up at him curiously for a long moment, as if coaching her next words carefully. Dare she ask him? He of all people? “Do you think he’s really been waiting all this time? Waiting for decades and decades?”

 

         John snorted derisively, and in an odd way his blunt dismissal was comforting because it was achingly familiar. “I don’t like Nikola. I really don’t. But when you’ve known someone for so long I think that stops mattering. And I’ll say this for him, and I don’t mean to compliment him, but the man doesn’t wait for anything.” He gently lifted her face up to him, oh so gently as he hadn’t been able to do this for a very long time, and said, “So I’d put those very Victorian romantic notions out of your head. Nikola’s always been a modern man.”

 

         Helen huffed unhappily, blowing a strand of hair away that had been sticking to her lip. “You’re wrong about that…it seems he thrives off of chasing me.”

 

         John pursed his lips as if in thought and gravely shook his head. “No, he likes driving you insane. But Nikola doesn’t want you as a woman.” When Helen looked at him quizzically, John elaborated with a delicate quirk of his eyebrow. “He wants you as Helen Magnus. As everything that encompasses. And he is a stubborn, selfish arsehole who will have either all of it or none at all.”

 

         Helen was a little stunned by the insight, perhaps most of all that it was coming from John, and looked back to the night skyline. She could hear his heart beating through his shirt and suddenly realized this was the first time she had felt comfortable with him in many years. “Our DNA may set us apart, but I forget our hearts are still so very human and we don’t always recuperate from the unspeakable things we do to each other.”

 

         She felt John’s arms stiffen slightly around her and move away slightly. She didn’t look up at him, afraid it may scare him away, and finally heard his deep rumbling voice murmur, “You aren’t me, Helen…you haven’t done anything truly unforgiveable. And, much to my annoyance at having to acknowledge thus, neither has he.” She heard the dry humour flooding back into his voice with relief.

 

         She curled her fingers around the edge of his coat and asked in a small voice, “What do you…how do you feel? About all of this?”

 

         She saw his hand unconsciously reach up to gently fondle the locket hanging from his neck, the one she knew held a picture of her from Oxford and of Ashley. He was looking somewhere far off into the horizon with years of sorrow lining his eyes, but he had a gentle smile around his lips.

 

         “Absolved.”


	12. Chapter 12

TWELVE

***

“Coffee run.” Raymond tentatively knocked at the door, pushing it open with his shoulder. Katie looked up to see who it was, brushing away a stray tear from her face, embarrassed. Raymond smiled encouragingly at her, striding over and pretending as if he hadn't seen, setting a cup of coffee down in front of her.

 

“I thought you were relieved from assistant duties,” she said with a small smirk, picking up the coffee more for something warm to hold in her hands than to drink.

 

Raymond shrugged. “Old habits die hard. Besides, you've been working in here all night.”

 

Katie let out a big sigh, shaking her head slightly. “I'm just trying to get my things organized and packed.”

 

Raymond tried to hide his alarm, but he wasn't very good at hiding his feelings and Katie noticed. Swiping a hand through his hair to try and distract himself he asked, “Are you leaving?”

 

“Well, I can't really work for the network at the moment, so I was thinking of going to stay at my aunt's for a while in Long Island.”

 

Raymond felt his heart sink a little and hoped it hadn't shown on his face. “Oh...that's not _too_ far away.” He brightened a little and said, “I could drive you there if you wanted. Save you having to sit on a bus.”

 

Katie laughed. “That'd be nice, actually. Thank you.”

 

“Are you leaving because of Doc?” The look Katie gave him made him blush and turn his eyes to the ground. He hadn't meant to say that out loud.

 

Katie gave him a coy look. “You think there's something serious between me and Doctor Tesla?”

 

Raymond snorted, still unable to meet her gaze. “Well... _yeah_.”

 

Katie considered him for a long moment, this poor awkward guy who wore his heart on his sleeve and felt that twinge of guilt again. She was still trying to find a way to word her next reply when the door to the lab swung open and the devil himself walked in.

 

“I need a word with you.” Tesla looked at Raymond and dismissively jerked his head over his shoulder. “You're on Underground duty, Edison, get to it.”

 

Raymond shrugged and waved goodbye to her before skipping off, but Katie could see the heavy heart on his face despite his attempt at casual cheer. Tesla didn't seem to notice, or more likely he didn't care, and deftly seated himself in the chair Raymond had just vacated.

 

“Getting cozy with the help?”

 

Katie gave him a look, before dignifying that with a reply. “He's sweet.”

 

Tesla pulled a face before passing his tablet over to her. “I have a job offer for you. Completely separate from the network, a private contract with my own personal company.”

 

Katie's eyes widened as her eyes scanned the tablet screen. When she looked up to Tesla with a thousand questions ready to spill forth from her lips he held up a stern finger.

 

“You are _not_ allowed to tell anyone about this. Absolutely no one.”

 

***

 

“Hey. _Hey_.”

 

Sherman looked over, annoyed, to see who had been flinging dirt at his back to see Raymond hacking furiously away at a section of crumbled wall with his shovel as if he were stabbing someone he really hated in the face. Raymond hadn't even heard him. Rolling up his sleeves, Sherman walked over and grabbed the shovel out of his hands. Raymond looked up, panting slightly, and Sherman saw a flash of anger there he hadn't ever seen on the new kid before. It made all of his irritation melt away.

 

“What's the matter, kid?”

 

“Nothing.” Raymond tugged on the shovel to get back to work but Sherman held fast. He raised an eyebrow, dug into his vest pockets and brought out a chocolate bar, waving it in Raymond's face.

 

“Come on, break time. Gnaw on this.” At the annoyed look on Raymond's face he threw his arms out. “What? You don't like candy bars?”

 

Sighing, Raymond took the bar from Sherman and sat down. “It's nothing.”

 

Sherman looked at the deep gouges in the beaten earth and whistled lowly. “That's one hell of a nothing.”

 

Raymond tore the wrapper off the bar, wrinkled his nose at the half-melted chocolate coating but bit into it anyway. He chewed in silence for a bit before finally muttering, “I think I like Katie.”

 

“Who?”

 

Raymond glared at him, and Sherman slapped the side of his head. “Oh...intern. _Oh_.”

 

“I think I _really_ like her.”

 

Sherman took of his baseball cap, running a hand through his sweat-drenched hair, unsure of what to say. Finally he just whistled again. “Having a thing for the boss' squeeze...yup, that's tough breaks, kiddo.”

 

Raymond looked miserable. “What the hell do I do?”

 

Sherman snapped his fingers at one of the mole men passing by. “Amigo – bring some beer will ya?” When the underground dweller ignored him and shuffled off Sherman kept shouting, “What? You don't understand B-E-E-R?”

 

Raymond kicked his foot, shaking his head at Sherman. “Is that you answer to everything? Drink?”

 

Sherman looked at him incredulously. “You think of a better way to deal with being cock-blocked by your boss?”

 

Raymond stared long and hard at him before finally shaking his head. “Let's go find a bar.” He helped haul Sherman to his feet and they made their way to the path that would lead them above ground.

 

“So what's your excuse for Kelly?”

 

Sherman slapped him upside the head. “Shut up.”

 

***

 

The dark-haired woman tapped her foot impatiently as she sat at the workbench in the warehouse. She had an idea that there were probably eyes on her, making sure she wasn’t going to get up to any sort of trouble, but she didn’t know it was Nikola himself monitoring her in the car outside. Aureliano sniffed, his nose wrinkling; he was one of the few beings who didn’t appreciate new car smell.

 

“She’s pretty.”

 

Aureliano gave him a look through his dark sunglasses before pointing to her waistline. “She has a stun gun hidden in that skirt.”

 

That made a grin spread on Nikola’s face. Smart…for a human. Too bad if she ever decided to use it on him it would just make him angry, and also give him a sudden boost of a power source to use against her.

 

“Let's go meet our mystery woman.”

 

Nikola turned off his tablet as Aureliano got out of the car first and immediately started scaling the fire exit of the warehouse. As always he would keep his perch up high in the beams to keep an eye on everything. Nikola took one quick glance in the mirror to make sure his appearance was in order and walked into the warehouse.

 

“Gloomy settings for a business meeting,” the dark-haired woman said immediately upon seeing him. She shrugged her shoulders, as if pretending to find the right word for what she was feeling. “Very...criminal.”

 

“Rebellious, perhaps.” Nikola flicked his wrists to straighten cuffs before sitting down. Immediately she turned her laptop screen in his direction and he could see the files she had opened. He couldn't help the grin spread on his face. There was something he liked very, very much about this woman and he didn't even know her name yet. She was bold, direct, to the point...and judging by all of _his_ personal information on her screen, incredibly intelligent and ruthless.

 

The brunette thing didn't hurt. He kept the amused look on is face and slanted an eyebrow at her, redirecting the screen back towards her. “So you have some talent for hacking. What am I supposed to do with this?”

 

“Doctor Tesla, or whatever other nom de plume you enjoy, my associates like to keep a close eye on all operations happening within their lines of interest and my, you have stirred up quite a bit of trouble. We're at a point right now where we could work harmoniously together and both benefit from each other, or you can decide to keep your enterprises completely exclusive and you become a threat.”

 

Nikola laughed a little inwardly at her intimation that he was using 'Nikola Tesla' in his identification as some poor alias. That already told him her 'associates' had no abnormal agenda and didn't know anything about that part of the world. Her veiled threats were something he usually dealt with every day and didn't do anything to impress him, but he let her talk just enjoying the view of a sexy and dangerous woman.

 

“Miss...you know, it isn't very conducive to a healthy relationship if I don't even know the name of your 'associates' representative.” He gave her what he thought was a coy look and it succeeded in surprising a grudging smirk from her.

 

“Well, _Tesla_ , you could call me Ms. Elizabeth Bathory if you so chose.”

 

Nikola wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Bathory, really? When is this whole vampire craze going to die out.” He looked her up and down. “Though your skin is amazing enough that if you said you moisturized with the blood of virgins I'd believe you.”

 

She had a serene smile on her face, though Nikola was sure he had been an inch away from making her laugh out loud. Good, good. She fiddled around on her computer for a little bit before addressing him again. “I'm assuming that whatever connections you have to help grease the wheels for those zoning regulations are probably similar to the ones we have. We can help speed along the process surely, but of course you're looking for a bigger slice of pie than that.”

 

She finished whatever she was doing on her laptop and turned it back to face him. Nikola was greeted with the sight of 3D schematics and shipping records. She had that icy, “I know I've got you” smile back on her face. “Perimeter defense systems like you've never seen within your pay grade...turrets, missiles, laser fences, full-spectrum sensors, remote controllable – all fully customizable and programmable from the host console.”

 

Nikola hated to admit it, but that did make his insides ache a little. He hid the hunger on his face and pulled a haughty look instead. “You know I can design better in my sleep.”

 

“But you don't have the production facilities to bring your creations to life, whereas I can offer you enough materiel to fortify a city.”

 

Nikola sighed a little grudgingly, he was going to have to play ball with the big boys now and there was no use trying to act coy anymore. “What kind of premiums are you looking for?”

 

She snapped her computer close, drumming the tips of her fingernails on the table. “We've made a cursory check of your finances to know contacting you wouldn't be a waste of our time. I'm not going to lie, it will hurt your pockets a bit, but trust me when I say everyone involved knows you can afford it.”

 

Nikola felt simultaneously enraged at the audacity they had to flaunt their invasion of his privacy, and yet couldn't help but admire  _just_ how audacious they were being. Rather like him. They were smart to set up this gorgeous woman as the bearer of bad news, it took enough of the sting out of it.

 

“Obviously, you'll need time to consider. I'll leave you this.” She handed him a memory stick with all the schematics and data she had just shown him. “If you're interested I'll be in town for the next few nights. Come to Delmonico's and ask for the chef's table upstairs.”

 

Nikola rose with her and offered her his arm, escorting her to the exit. She placed a pair of designer sunglasses delicately on her face before looking imperiously over her shoulder. A black car with what Nikola guessed was a private driver rolled up and she got inside. He blew her a kiss and watched as the car pulled away. Once it was out of sight Aureliano dropped to the ground from twenty feet and straightened up, limber as a cat.

 

“What do you think of her?”

 

Aureliano shrugged, tapping his nose lightly, meaning he couldn't get close enough to smell her let alone extract any memories from her. Nikola sighed, smoothing the sleeves of his jacket. “I don't have anything nice to wear to Delmonico's.”

 

***

 

“Yes, I will let you know.” John heard a movement some fifteen feet away from him. “Druitt out.” He closed his phone quietly, thumbing the button the side to turn it to silent mode and slid it into his pocket. As suspected, Aureliano stepped forward into the sunlight, his dark glasses shielding his sensitive eyes from the bright glare. John's senses were good, but he knew that as a Sybarite Aureliano's were much sharper than his and wasn't sure if he had been heard on the phone with Kate.

 

If Aureliano had noticed he made no mention of it and instead gave a curt, “Come”, and already began to head for the marina. John fell in step with him and to any passer by they looked like two leather jacket aficionados out for a stroll.

 

“So why are we at Staten Island?”

 

Aureliano must have looked in some direction or other, but John wasn't able to tell because of the dark glasses his companion was wearing. This was what was frustrating about working with the Sybarite sometimes...he forgot he had the better senses of anyone he encountered and they couldn't always keep up with his subtle hints. John just took a good look around instead and tried to find the one part to all of this that damn vampire would find most interesting.

 

“The port?”

 

Aureliano shook his head very slightly. “The industrial shipping docks. The White Hand has been making their way across here to New York over the course of the past three months. Now all they have left to ferry and smuggle over is their major hardware. In theory...some of it is already here, in those shipping containers. But which ones?”

 

John nodded and sat down on a bench, the stiff breeze from the water ripping through his trench coat. “So...you're here to sniff out those crates...”

 

Aureliano nodded, a sage smile on his lips. “Yes...but no man can get near them, there is a lot of security around. So you...”

 

“...have to get inside the containers discreetly.”

 

Aureliano sipped from a coffee cup as they waited for the winds to die down. He wasn't drinking coffee, it had a flavour and aroma that was overpowering and temporarily deadened his sense of smell, but he made great pains to blend in with other people. John tapped his foot impatiently, sometimes annoyed at how serene his companion could be when they had to wait.

 

The winds finally died down enough that when Aureliano strolled to within twenty feet of the shipping containers he was beginning to pick up some scents. John watched him anxiously, knowing that if anything went wrong he would have to get them out quickly. After a few minutes of Aureliano exploring the fenced perimeter, John noticed some other men apart from the neon-vest dock workers and his spine tingled. They were watching Aureliano...unconcerned, but attentive. That was a red flag.

 

Five more agonizing minutes and Aureliano finally strayed too close and one of the dock workers came by to shoo him politely, but firmly, away. He just gave the man his odd, serene grin and made his way back to John. With his thick accent people just naturally assumed he was another tourist...which was true in a sense.

“3, 17, 28, 31.” John nodded to let Aureliano know he had heard and strolled off to the portable toilet nearby. Once inside the stall he disappeared in a flash of orange light before his nose could even be assaulted by the foul smell of a public restroom, and he was inside shipping container number 3.

 

His knife was already out of its hiding place within the inner lining of his trench coat, but he was in luck and there was no security within the container as well as without. The possibility of that had put him on edge all morning. But he was in luck, and in lucky door number three there were boxes full of...assault rifles. Hand grenades. Kevlar vests and other assorted body armour.

 

“What on earth...”

 

John quickly sealed up the boxes again and went to the door of the shipping container. He stared through the crack of it until he had container 17 within sight and then teleported.

 

Jewels...no, mineral ore.  _Praxian_ mineral ore. John looked about the enormous container about him in wonder. Where on earth, or Hollow earth more appropriately, did they find  _so much_ of it. John felt his insides slick with ice. And what were they planning on doing with so much of it?

 

Container 28 held his answer: anti-abnormal weaponry. All in parts to be assembled at a separate location. Some were designs John recognized from the few espionage trips he had taken with Aureliano. Some were completely foreign to him. Either way it wasn't good news. Shipping container 31 held much of the same with one nasty surprise that looked like the parts to a very large field containment or elimination system.

 

When he made it back to the portable toilet, he stumbled out of it, choking and gasping. Aureliano caught up with him quickly and took him by the arm.

 

“What?” John spluttered, and then realized the phone in his pocket was gone and there was silver mist escaping his nose. Alarmed, he tried to shrug Aureliano's hand from his arm but the abnormal's grip remained firm. He drank in John's thoughts and memories and then a look twisted his face, almost like a school matron catching a rule breaker.

 

“It's as blood demon suspected...” Aureliano sighed heavily. “Damn. I am not good at this whole 'betting' humans do. Go talk to him. He told me he has something to say to you.”

 

John shook a little, pulling away from Aureliano a little more aggressively than was necessary. Being caught as a sort of bizarre double agent was disturbing enough without the realization that Nikola had anticipated and accounted for it.

 

***

 

Kelly shifted the folders in her arm as she made her way down the hallway. The team was going a little stir crazy at New York as everyone felt a building tension – like something big was about to happen. And, worst of all, they were all stuck inside with the CIA on their tail. Ubuntu had said it was normal back in Lagos with so much political turmoil in the country, but she could tell even he was started to grow irritated with nothing to do except for the rebuild of the Underground.

 

“Damnit.”

 

Kelly heard someone curse in the lobby and saw Katie struggling with some boxes. One slipped from the pile in her arms and crashed to the ground in an explosion of paper. Feeling guilty, Kelly ran over, dumping her folders onto the lobby bench and helped collect the papers.

 

“Oh, thanks.” Katie avoided her eyes and Kelly felt guilty all over again. She hadn't quite made her dislike of the new girl discreet...it probably went with having two blondes clash. Still, especially after that stern talk with Mike, there was nothing about the new girl for her to actually dislike...

 

“Where are you taking these? I'll give you a hand.” Kelly hefted the box into her arms and opened the door with her free hand. She then noticed the moving truck outside. “Oh, are you leaving?”

 

Katie worried at her bottom lip, trying to remain casual. “Yeah, just...transferring. Again.” She gave an embarrassed laugh.

 

Kelly helped her with the boxes in the truck, the big elephant in the room weighing over the both of them. Whatever Doc had done to chase away the intern was...well, Kelly hadn't been too pleased with their scientist hotshot getting a free ride into New York because the Doc had a thing for her, but in Katie's shoes – he _was_ a hard person to deal with.

 

“Are you okay?” Kelly asked as she slammed the truck's back doors shut. They shared a knowing look that made it clear to Katie what she meant.

 

“Yeah, I'm fine. It isn't what you think. Umm...” Katie dug into the back pocket of her jeans and passed Kelly a scrap of paper. “Could you give this to Raymond?”

 

Kelly looked stunned as she took the paper from her. That was the last name she expected to hear.

 

Katie looked embarrassed as she fished the truck keys out of her pocket. “It's my number. Just...yeah, just pass it along to him. I'd appreciate it.”

 

With that she climbed into the driver's seat of the truck, gave Kelly another bashful smile, and drove out of New York Sanctuary. Kelly held the piece of paper, took a quick peep at it to see it was indeed a phone number, and wondered if she had gotten it all wrong. Nothing at New York was ever as simple as it looked, it seemed.

 

***

 

“Leaving without goodbye's...very dramatic, wouldn't you say?”

 

Katie nearly jumped out of her skin as Nikola seemed to materialize from the shadows beside her, and she glared at him as she tried to massage her beating chest. This whole cloak and daggers business had already made her edgy.

 

“Haha, very funny. You're the one who suggested it.”

 

“I know.” He walked smoothly over to her, grasping her arm and pulling her towards him. She tried to stay annoyed, but the buckets of charm he was dousing her with was contagious. He had the faint hint of cologne about him and she noticed the suit he was wearing was crisp and fresh from a tailor.

 

“Fancy duds.”

 

He smirked. “I have a few engagements after this.” He placed a finger under her chin and kissed her lightly. When he pulled his face away he noticed she looked sad.

 

“What is it?”

 

“This...” she struggled with how to phrase herself diplomatically and a small laugh escaped her. “This was a very pleasant mistake.”

 

“Truer words.” She looked relieved that he seemed to be just as accepting of this as she had been. He knew, of _course_ he knew, that this wasn't what she wanted for any length of time. She had a life to live that didn't involve all the trappings of eternity. It would have been worse if this weren't the case. Because he, himself, didn't have the time for that with someone who was trapped by finality.

 

“It has been special.”

 

She laughed freely now at his clunky choice of words. “Special? Don't go Hallmark on me, Nikola.”

 

He sighed and twirled her around once before staring into her eyes again. “When you're immortal the chance to make a mistake is a very rare sort of luxury.”

 

The water by the bridge lapped against the dock and they saw the distant lights of an approaching ship. Nikola looked back to her again, to that marvelous flaw in her eyes and said, “Now kiss me and get on that boat.”

 

***

 

“You always reek of sex whenever I run into you privately.”

 

Nikola arched an eyebrow at Druitt, who looked pissy and miserable as always. He flicked invisible lint off his shoulder and bared his teeth for a second. “I promise you, I've been perfectly chaste all evening.”

 

John raised himself to his full, formidable height, his favourite trick, and glared down at Nikola. “What is it this time, old boy?”

 

“You seem unhappy, John, like your present position isn't fulfilling enough for you. I am here to help facilitate your needs.” Nikola chuckled inwardly at the sneer on John's face. Knowing he couldn't push bald, bad and homicidal much longer, Nikola gave him back the smart phone. “I have something special I need doing.”

 

“When don't you?” John drawled.

 

Nikola held up a finger. “Wait, you'll want to hear this. This is the last thing I need from you. Honestly,” he insisted when he saw the skeptical look on John's face. “And this is my offer.”

 

John turned on the phone and looked at it suspiciously. Whatever he saw made his eyes widen and stunned him enough that he couldn't hide his reaction. Then his eyebrows knitted together in a frown, worry and dread gnawing at his stomach. “Aureliano warned me you were playing in deep waters.”

 

“Your part in it is simple. You two visited some shipping containers today.” Nikola saw the hesitation on John's face, his old nemesis staring down at the phone screen and thumbing through it over and over as if this would somehow make his decision easier. “You can walk away, John. I'm sure Old City wouldn't mind having you around.”

 

John swallowed, turned the phone off, and slipped it into his pocket. “What, and when?”

 

***

 

“The upstairs chef room.”

 

“Right this way, sir.”

 

Cute. Nikola knew there was no chef's room upstairs Delmonico's, he had eaten here over the century enough times that he knew the famous restaurant inside and out. So he wasn't alarmed when the restaurant manager lead him to the basement instead. A large man stopped them and waved a scanning wand over his person to ensure he wasn't carrying any weapons before letting him in.

 

Nikola flicked out his wrists, straightening his cuffs in an old habit, and opened the door.

 

“Hullo, Nikola.”

 

Helen sat demurely at the table inside, a dark grin on her face and a gun pointed at his heart.


	13. Chapter 13

THIRTEEN

***

 

Nikola shut the door quickly behind him, trying to hide his nervousness. “Surely that's just a waste of a bullet.”

 

She tilted her head to the side in a play of mock-innocence and the sweet tone in her voice reminded him of an adder...poison and honey. “It would give me great satisfaction, but no...this is more to keep you in line. You need discretion above all things in what you're doing and a gun shot in a packed, well-known restaurant just wouldn't bode well for Dr. Manhattan now would it?” She grinned now. “And I didn't bring my silencer.”

 

Nikola licked his lips nervously, his mouth feeling dry and fiddled with his sleeve cuffs. “Sit,” Helen commanded.

 

“Sexy, intelligent brunette with a ruthless flair...oh, and that nice touch with the whole Bathory shtick too. You're lucky I didn't catch on, that wasn't very subtle was it?”

 

Helen smirked, the gun still leveled cleanly at him. “Oh, Nikola...when were you ever one for subtlety?”

 

Nikola sat, his hand roaming the table for a wine glass that wasn't there. “Can I still plead innocent?” By the slow shake of her head, he realized the game was truly up. Folding his hands together and resting his chin on top, he asked, “How much do you know and how?”

 

Helen just gave a little coy shrug and said, “You should have offered Henry more money.”

 

“Wolf-boy?  _My_ defenses? You must be trying to annoy me.”

 

Helen screwed her lips into a frown, tapping a finger against the barrel of her gun. “You've been hiding things from me for long enough, Nikola. I want answers.”

 

“Gregory was too free with you back in Oxford. What would he think of his proper little Victorian girl playing with firearms?”

 

“That I was a fool for not shooting you already.  _Answers_ , Nikola.”

 

He spread his arms wide in innocence. “But you haven't even asked me a question yet.” He reached into his pocket and he noticed the gun's muzzle follow him. He carefully pulled his phone from his pocket, making slow exaggerated movements as if he were being held up for his wallet. He knew that would annoy her further and the little frustrated exhale she gave let him know he was on cue.

 

“I get one phone call, right?” Nikola mocked as he quickly tapped in a text message and sent it before Helen could protest. Hearing the click of the gun's hammer being pulled back, he peacefully placed the phone on the table away from him.

 

“I know the last time we spoke wasn't...cordial, but believe me when I say I didn't bring you here out of some sort of personal spite.”

 

Nikola nodded sagely. “Oh, I know, this is your business face.”

 

Helen snapped, “Nikola for heaven's  _sake_ , can't you take anything seriously? You've jeopardized the security of the network, you've been placing yourself as a major player in the criminal world and worst of all you've not even cleaned up the traces behind yourself. You've brought the White Hand to America.”

 

He lifted a cursory eyebrow and though his tone was disdainful, she could tell he had switched on for real this time. “Trust me, Helen, when I say they were coming already. I know you want to bring a whole Sanctuary inquisition down on my head for some of my more questionable investments, but if you want to deal with me personally, which I think you do considering our current arrangements, then believe me when I say you will get your answers. Soon.”

 

Helen blew a stray lock of hair from her face in irritation. “Oh, of course, all on  _your_ schedule.”

 

He smirked. “Exactly. And right now let's just sit tight.”

 

“For what?”

 

“My phone call.”

 

As if on cue, Nikola's phone chirped to say that he had received a text. With a questioning look to Helen, he picked up the phone and she sat back, chewing her lip in annoyance but forced to play along. Druitt sent him a blank message, but that was fine. Nikola texted back, “Now” and placed the phone back into his pocket.

 

He could tell Helen was bursting with anticipation and curiosity and just to goad her a little bit further he winked at her.

 

***

 

John didn't know what he had been expecting when Nikola's reply came back. It wasn't as if that bloody vampire changed his mind at the last second about anything so fabulously stupid. His hands felt clammy and he could feel a film of sweat on his brow, he didn't know anything could make him so nervous.

 

Nikola was telling the truth though when he said John's part was simple. John closed his eyes and counted to five silently to calm himself and then placed the sealed cylindrical unit on the floor of the shipping container. He slid up the two latches on the side and pushed the green button to arm. Standing up he made sure he was steady on his feet before teleporting to the next one, three more of these patented units in his arms.

 

After the last was set in place and armed he almost shook with relief and eagerly teleported away from there. The vampire had one last thing he needed.

 

***

 

“It would really pain me to have to turn you over to the CIA, you know.”

 

Nikola shrugged, his leg jiggling under the table. “No, I don't think even I could work that hideous neon orange they make you wear in prison.”

 

Helen looked at him almost tearfully. “ _Nikola_ . I am trying so hard to understand your reasons for all of this, but if you can't help explain this my options are very limited. I don't want to do this.”

 

_Johnny, hurry up, Johnny hurry up_ ... the thought raced round and round in Nikola's mind. He felt a little guilty that he couldn't say anything to her, especially as he knew exactly how she was feeling. Here was his Helen again, genuine and heartfelt and protective, but he wasn't in the right place at the moment to respond to her. He was in that dizzying, high plane whenever he was inventing or discovering something new...holding onto something intangible with just the tips of his nails but unable to let go.

 

His plan...even Helen couldn't come before his plan. The thought shocked him as he sat and waited there, the few seconds ticking by like years. He suddenly felt two inches small and alone.  _Oh why Helen do you always get dragged into the messes only I deserve?_

 

Struggling, he felt like the right words were just on the tip of his tongue when there was a sudden flash of orange light and John materialized in the room. He grabbed hold of Nikola's shoulder, looked up and said, “I'm sorry, Helen.”

 

She only heard Nikola's outraged, “I'm sorry,  _Helen_ ?” before they both vanished away.

 

***

 

When Will burst into the room it was to see Helen sitting slumped over the table, her head in her arms and the gun beside her, miserable. He paused, how bad had it gone in here?

 

“Where the hell did he go?”

 

“John.”

 

Ahh, that would explain it. Will sat down in the chair Nikola had just vanished from and reached out for Helen's hand. It was rare she let him see her upset. “Should we go over to New York Sanctuary?”

 

Helen sat up straight and let out a long sigh. “I don't know what good it will do us. I don't know whether to get the CIA involved...perhaps we should just go home.”

 

Will let out a nervous laugh that made Helen snap to attention immediately. “Well, now, see...I don't think we need to give them anymore help, the CIA are going to get thrown into the frenzy no matter what we do. And maybe we shouldn't go back to Old City just yet.”

 

Helen tried to push down the sense of dread coming over her. “What is it?”

 

Will passed her his phone. “Maybe you should talk to Henry yourself.”

 

Helen placed the phone to her ear, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment to brace herself as she heard the panicked clacking of a keyboard on the other end.

 

“Hey Doc, umm...genius is in trouble. Again.”

 

“What did he do this time?”

 

“Well, I'm in the Interpol switchboard right now and it's  _blowing up_ with emergency bulletins.”

 

Helen groaned. “Alright, we can add Interpol to the list.”

 

She could almost hear Henry shake his head on the other line as he let out another nervous laugh. Her evening seemed to be filled with them. “ _Nope_ , he doesn't have to worry about that. You know how the White Hand has been muscling in on New York turf? Well, apparently the CIA have finally gone far enough into their investigation to link a lot of serious hardware, I'm talking stuff from  _Praxis_ , back to the group stored in a Staten Island dock facility waiting to be smuggled into the rest of the state. Your regular weapons and armor to outfit what looks like a serious contingent of guerrilla fighters  _plus_ anti-abnormal armaments.”

 

Helen sat back stunned and breathed, “Oh gods, Nikola, what have you done?”

 

“He blew it all up.”

 

Whatever Helen was expecting to hear, it wasn't that. She blinked for a moment, unsure if she had heard Henry correctly. “Excuse me?”

 

“It's all sky high, and the CIA got called in initially because they were afraid it was a terrorist attack. However, when bomb squad got in they found the fragments of the device and found it to be...shall we say, conspicuous and unlike anything on the American military market. Or any military in the world. Custom-designed, custom-made, high-powered, expert stuff.  _Using cirillium_ . Hence, Interpol and the UN's interest.”

 

Helen felt like someone had just knocked her over with a heavy punching bag. “He's put his fingerprints all over it.” The phone almost slid from her hand as the horrible implications of everything sunk in. “He's in a lot of danger.”

 

Will took the phone from her and said a quick goodbye to Henry, before returning his attention to her. “This is pretty big. What do we do?”

 

Helen drummed her fingers anxiously on the table top as her mind raced and she tried to put everything in order. “Get a hold of all the contacts you have in the FBI. New York's going to be thrown into a lot of chaos, this explosion must have been witnessed by hundreds of people and they'll all be afraid of another terrorist attack. The hype has got to calm down  _quickly_ . See what the Mayor's office is using as a cover story. I need to speak to Ranna immediately and smooth over our relations with Hollow Earth. They are going to be furious when they discover their precious trading resources have been stolen, not to mention what they're being used for.”

 

“What do we do about the White Hand? Or New York Sanctuary?”

 

Helen got to her feet, stowing her gun away into the hidden holster in the back of her dress. She stared at the floor for a moment, knowing the right decision in this case was the hard one. “We need to run damage control on what we can. I think New York is out of our hands for now. Whatever Nikola's done, whatever he's planning, he'll most certainly have factored in his Sanctuary's security.”

 

Will grasped her arm for a second and gave her an encouraging smile. “Never a slow day in the office, huh?”

 

She smiled back, steeling her shoulders. “Indeed. Good luck.”

 

***

 

Nikola pulled the cork off the wine bottle with his teeth. It was his favourite vintage, a Spanish  _rojas_ from 1952, and the idea that he couldn't give it a chance to breathe or even drink it properly from a glass felt like sacrilege. But needs must and he didn't think he'd be able to go through with this briefing without a bottle in his hand.

 

Sherman knocked politely on his office door before stepping in, ready and to attention as always, G.I. Jack-off...with that stupid baseball cap that he always wore... 

 

And he was the only one on the team that Nikola could trust with this. Somehow that thought didn't fill him with as much dread as he expected. “Rooftop, let's go.”

 

If Sherman was surprised or had questions, he kept them to himself, and Nikola knew that was part of why he needed the ex-marine now. The whole “I run everything like an army” thing might annoy him every other day, but the boy knew how to keep a level head on his shoulders in any situation. And when you're going into war, you want a soldier.

 

When they reached the rooftop, Nikola made Sherman walk a perimeter patrol with him and pointed out several devices that had been recently installed. “Do you know what those are?”

 

Sherman gave them a cursory look, was a little surprised, but answered evenly, “They're a turret missile defense system.”

 

Nikola nodded and took a long swig from the bottle. He held it out to Sherman who took a long drink from the neck before passing it back. “Sherman, I'm going to have a very important debriefing with the rest of the team...and then with all of the Sanctuary staff. But I needed to speak to you first and this is why – I have to disappear for a little while. And the Sanctuary is in danger.”

 

It sounded melodramatic to even Nikola's ears, but Sherman said nothing and just listened attentively. Perhaps this is when he really turned on, a life or death situation is what he had been trained for years for anyway.

 

“You are in charge of making sure everyone stays safe and this place doesn't blow up while I'm gone. So that means I'm walking you through all of the defensive measures put in place and giving you all of the command and override codes. If...” Nikola looked out to the beautiful New York skyline. “...if it comes to it your priority is to evacuate all personnel and abnormal residents to a safe location. The tech teams will all have their own personal instructions to erase all of our databases, leave them to it then get them out. There are a number of safe houses to use and Old City is the closest Sanctuary. Got that?”

 

“Yes, sir.”

 

“I'm also going to give you this.” Nikola handed him a device that looked like a small remote control. “When activated it will engage the self-destruct sequence of this Sanctuary. Don't blow up my house unnecessarily, alright?”

 

Sherman took the device and clipped it to his dog tags, grinning slightly. “Of course not, Doctor.”

 

Nikola took another long pull at the bottle, fervently wishing he could get drunk. Feeling almost as if the vintage was being wasted he passed it to Sherman again. “Ubuntu and Edison won't be with you in this. They're getting their own instructions. But you'll have Kelly, between the two of you things should be just fine.”

 

Nikola looked about him, finally feeling the panic that he'd been pushing away for months bubble up. Go big or go home, they say, and he was going to pull off a move to put that adage to shame. He felt like he had just jumped out of an airplane and was only now checking to make sure his parachute was working. If I look, I will fall, if I think about it, I will fall...

 

“And get someone to move my pigeon coop indoors.”

 

Sherman looked curiously over to the coop, gave him a look as if to ask 'you're serious?', but just shrugged and kept drinking.

 

***

 

John wrinkled his nose at the smell of burning ozone in the air, his eyes in a squint because of the sparks flying about the room. Nikola finally put down the small welding torch and began to close up the casing on John's EM shield.

 

Nikola held it up. “There, it now has the same capabilities as when I have an EM shield around me. All digital and electronic interference on all spectrums. Facial recognition processors and satellites will never be able to trace you.”

 

He held it out to John who snatched it up quickly, as if afraid it could be taken away at any moment. He looked at it curiously, a small part of him still couldn't believe so much power could be held in such a small brace, then slipped it onto his wrist.

 

Nikola leaned on his shoulder, waving the torch lazily in the air. “You're free, Johnny boy.”

 

Free. As free as Jack the Ripper, the Whitechapel murderer could be, but it was more open space and air than he ever dreamed he could have had. Nikola couldn't wipe his records off of the UN or Interpol databases, that would have raised too much alarm, but he had done one thing John hadn't thought possible. He had annulled all of the bounties different black ops groups had on his head. Where the vampire had gotten the money, he wasn't sure. Now that money was no more than a digital signature in their day and age perhaps it was just like another puzzle to Nikola.

 

No more bounties. Free-roaming status within the Sanctuary network. An EM shield that would keep any new organizations off his trail. And a bank account with enough funds that John could start fresh anywhere; perhaps in New York or back at Old City, or even somewhere completely new.

 

Nikola gave him another one of those infuriating grins. “I think the words you're looking for are 'thank you'.”

 

John gave him a death glare as he adjusted the wrist brace so that it wouldn't chafe against his skin. Nikola was enjoying baiting him now and waved his tool in John's face like a nun's ruler. “Don't go cavorting with ladies of questionable virtue anymore, Johnny Be Good.”

 

John disappeared and reappeared in a flash of orange light, his hand around Nikola's throat and lifting him into the air. The bloody vampire just laughed at him, his eyes turning black and his teeth lengthening.

 

“Oh, Johnny,” his voice had grown guttural and deep, “where's the love?”

 

John set him back down on the floor, tugging at his shirt collar. “Growing  _ever_ so much by the moment.” John couldn't keep his lip from curling in contempt for the other man, but he forced himself to calm down and swallow a little bit of his pride. Nikola was  _so_ good at antagonizing him, but they had more in common than either would care to admit. And John could tell the jeers and mockery were both a front to distract from that truth.

 

“I get the feeling like you might still need my help down the line, old boy,” he began, and the sour look on Nikola's face made him laugh. “Just ask.”

 

He made to stride away, then turned to look back over his shoulder. He flicked his head in the direction of Nikola's collar where the energy elemental was kept in its small blue prison. “Oh, and keep that beastie in line, that's a good chap.” He vanished just as Nikola was choking on his condescending tone.

 

***

 

“Mail.” Biggie grunted and left a small package of envelopes on Will's desk. Will gave him a small, terse smile as a 'thank you' with his ear glued to the phone. He had been making as many calls as possible, and had driven up the mileage on the Sanctuary's fleet of cars to meet his old FBI and PD colleagues. When Helen finally put him on a red flight back to Old City he had slept the entire way there, grateful that he couldn't do any work on the plane because he just didn't have the energy to continue without a break.

 

But it was back to the grindstone. He had already stood in for Helen on a few network calls with Declan and Vikram, but that was alright with him as he hadn't had to deal with Ranna. The look on her face when she requested Helen's attention over the video call was enough to make him feel like he was two years old and had wet the bed.

 

The mayor's office in New York was an utter zoo with calls flooding in every other second from concerned citizens who were shrieking about the explosion. The mayor himself had put out an urgent city-wide address on the late night news to try and calm down the furor. Helen had gently steered him away from the 'gas explosion' cover story as, honestly, it sounded like a horrible cover-up and instead with the CIA and American Military Forces' approval claimed it to be a botched routine military test.

 

New York Sanctuary itself had seemed to go on a total lock-down. Declan had tried contacting them himself but found they were unresponsive and their servers had been shut down. In an impromptu conference call with the majority of the Sanctuary Heads it seemed only Tokyo was completely unconcerned with what was happening.

 

Henry was on a full 24/7 detail monitoring the different international and national security feeds, and trying to process the rest of the data from the Tesla sectors they had managed to hack at the same time. Will had heard him getting some much needed moral support from Erika on skype as he passed by his lab.

 

“Hey, I think they're going to keep you on hold for a while.” Will looked up and saw Kate looking wryly at him, perched on his desk. He hadn't even noticed her coming in. Biggie came through the door with a tray of food in his hands and a warning look on his face.

 

“Yeah, I think you're right.” Will ended the call and set his phone down with a gusty sigh, leaning back in his chair. Biggie set down the tray a little harder than necessary and growled, “I made chili. Eat it.”

 

Will looked sheepishly back at him. “Thanks for bringing in the mail, Big Guy.” Biggie grunted, appeased and sat down in the chair opposite. Kate stole half of the grilled cheese sandwich off Will's tray as he began to spoon into the chili.

 

“Any luck?” She asked through a mouthful of toasted bread.

 

Will shrugged as he began to sort through the pile of mail on his desk. “No one knows what's going on with New York yet. The city itself is dealing with what happened, I think it has its own twitter hashtag at this point...hello...” Will pulled out a postcard from the pile of letters.

 

Kate and Biggie both leaned forward to look at the postcard. Will held it up in amazement: it was a picture of Calvin and Hobbes sitting on a beach with palm trees. Above Calvin's head someone had written 'William'.

 

Biggie took the postcard from him and checked the back. “It's from Chile.”

 

“There's only one person who sends me postcards like that.”

 

Kate laughed. “Yeah, and I think he's trying to tell you that you use too much hair gel.”

 

Will frowned at her before worry started to creep into his face. “They're in South America...what the hell are they doing? That's White Hand territory.”

 


	14. Chapter 14

FOURTEEN

***

 

         “This seems...rather unnecessary,” Aureliano remarked as he adjusted the straps of his kevlar vest. He meant the two beds in the room ostensibly for him and Nikola respectively, despite the fact that Nikola needed very little sleep and he didn't need it at all.

 

         “Appearance's sake,” Nikola said as he sipped from his wine glass, staring out the window. They were in the small, breezy house of the keeper of one of the vineyards Nikola owned. He had paid for the man and his family to have a very lovely, extended vacation in Germany. In case they were ever found out here, and it seemed to be more a matter of when than if, he didn't want any innocent people involved.

 

         Aureliano tightened the slim vest around him and then moved onto the guards for his thighs. He was a deadly operative to have on your side, but being _halispirus vampirus_ he was much more fragile than his _sanguine_ cousin. While Nikola could withstand a barrage of gunfire and much other physical abuse, Aureliano was vulnerable in that regard and he wasn't taking any chances.

 

         “Try the white, it's lovely chilled.”

 

         Aureliano's lips quirked in a small smirk. The blood demon, as he liked to refer to Nikola, had been trying to get him to drink all night as he was bored out of his mind. Alcohol was a funny substance to one with such a sensitive stimulus system, but he could handle small amounts.

 

         “If it please you and if you promise to pour only a half-glass.”

 

         Nikola lazily poured the wine into the second glass and pushed it towards Aureliano. He looked moodily out the window again to the swaying leaves and branches of the grape vines. “Helen slapped me here once­. One hundred and nineteen.”

 

         Aureliano raised an eyebrow, the glass lifted near his nose as he inhaled its bouquet, strong enough to almost get him drunk on smell alone. “You know exactly how many times Doctor Magnus has slapped you?”

 

         “I know everything.”

 

         Aureliano took a small sip of the white wine, needing to close his eyes for a moment as it seemed his entire head exploded with sensation. When the initial dizziness passed he asked playfully, “How many times has she shot you?”

 

         “Six times in the head, eleven times in the chest. Once in the hand.”

 

         “Do all you blood demons like counting?”

 

         Nikola snorted, draining what was left in his glass. “No, it's solely a genius thing.”

 

         Aureliano swirled the drops of wine in his mouth, marveling at the dry, slightly sweet, slightly tart flavour. He looked up to the ceiling in thought. “Hmmm...how many times has she...kissed you?”

 

         Nikola raised an eyebrow at him as he poured more wine for himself. “That I kissed her or that she kissed me?”

 

         Aureliano thought for a moment, his brow screwed up with the effort, and then just chuckled. “Both.”

 

         “Twelve and four.”

 

         Aureliano pulled a face, sipping more wine. “Over a hundred and forty years? That seems like a very small number.”

 

         Nikola frowned at him. “Are you drunk already? You've only had two sips.”

 

         Aureliano just laughed, sipping more. “Perhaps. I'm not like you.” He tapped his fingernail lightly against the side of the glass, enjoying the tinkling sound it made. “I know Ylerin liked to drink some wine here and there, but she was always much more daring than I was.”

 

         Nikola smiled softly, the name bringing up bittersweet memories. He had often wondered if Aureliano had slid further back into the more bestial and coldblooded side of his nature because Ylerin had died and he was the only Sybarite left. With no one to help carry on that abnormal legacy, perhaps he felt he had to be more so. She had that same dry, aloof wit he had, but knew how to make Nikola laugh more. It was a pity she wasn't around to help them with this mess.

 

         Aureliano flopped down by the windowsill, propping his chin up on his arms and looking out to the night sky. “It is nights like this that make me nervous. It is a new moon and I cannot see the Lady tonight.”

 

         Ah, the Silver Lady, the deity the Sybarites had worshipped and who had granted Nikola that one wish a few years ago. The night he should have died and instead was saved by some mysterious force whose perverted sense of humour thought the world would be more amusing with him in it a while longer. Whether she was a Super Abnormal like Kali and the rest of the avatar council was still a mystery as neither he nor Helen had been able to find out anything about her.

 

         “What were you trying to accomplish down in the Silver Chamber, blood demon?”

 

         Nikola pulled a face at the starry-eyed killer beside him, uncharacteristically loopy after the wine. “You're awfully chatty tonight.”

 

         Aureliano shrugged, sticking his nose into his wine glass to drink in the smell. “You are bored and I am making conversation.”

 

         What had he been trying to do down in that rocky cavern with his one wish? “I didn't want Helen to feel lonely anymore. You're older than we are...you should know what it's like to feel that everyone you meet is sooner worth forgetting about because they're only around for such a short time.”

 

         Aureliano was done just smelling the wine and was sipping at it again. He looked curiously to Nikola, more candid than usual. “So you wanted to keep her from feeling lonely by dying down in the chamber?”

 

         Nikola frowned, an annoyed furrow between his brow. “ _No_. I wanted her to...” He huffed, irritated, and unable to finish his sentence, plucked the elemental sphere from his collar bone so that it rested in the palm of his hand instead. “I thought getting rid of this would get rid of the problem.”

 

         Aureliano looked at it, fascinated by the dark matter swirling endlessly, restlessly, within the blue energy shield. He finished the last dregs of his wine and gently skimmed a fingertip across the surface of the shield. “This being is very old, blood demon, older even than myself. And as you put it, I'm older than some rocks. It is energy, like you, you can't kill it. And you can't keep it penned up forever. It paces, like a wild animal, and they only pace when they are unhappy.”

 

         Nikola looked to the elemental swirling in his palm and then back to Aureliano's strange oil-black eyes. “You want me to make it _happy_?”

 

         Aureliano laughed. “You never have anyone say to you 'you are so young', but you need to hear it more often. How happy are you, blood demon, swallowing pills and always drinking wine and never eating? Always looking and teasing the doctor but never being...how do humans put it?”

 

         Nikola bared his teeth in a growl. “ _Not_ human. And I don't need a lecture about love from a rock, _comprende_?”

 

         Aureliano sighed, shaking his head at Nikola, which Nikola found particularly irksome. No, he most definitely did not enjoy feeling like a child. Aureliano ignored him and said, “Energy. You of all beings should understand this thing you hold in your hand. What can you do with energy?”

 

         Nikola frowned a little as he looked at the blue-black ball swirling in his hand. It was a question that had puzzled him ever since he had been stuck with the nasty beastie. “I don't know...but energy has a nasty personality. It is immutable...it can transform, but it can never be created and it can never be destroyed. Only transferred to another state.”

 

         “What can you do with something that must always be there? Keeping it in a cage is too easy, and you know it. That is why I see you frowning and drinking wine all the time. You know there must be a better answer.”

 

         Nikola sighed, knocking back another half-glass of wine and put his head in his hand. He was never letting the Sybarite drink again. “So what do you suggest, Confucius?”

 

         Aureliano laughed, and something about his laughter made Nikola's spine tingle in an unpleasant way.

 

         “Throw away the 'medicine' pills and start drinking blood again.”

 

***

 

         Nikola lifted his sunglasses from his face and pushed them up into his hair, an incredulous look on his face. “Is that tub of lard _following_ us?”

 

         Aureliano wrinkled his nose in distaste, sunglasses firmly in place. “Yes. He has eaten tinned anchovies for his breakfast and I have been smelling him for the past two hours. You are very unobservant.”

 

         Nikola almost dropped the newspapers under his arm and rounded on his pale companion. “Why didn't you tell me?”

 

         “Because he has no weapons on his person and because you didn't ask.”

 

         Nikola reminded himself to play it cool and strode down the dirt road, reminding himself not to jog or run. That would tip off their shadow that he had been noticed.

 

         “How long must we remain in Chile?” Aureliano asked.

 

         Nikola sighed, the hairs on the back of his neck prickling as he fought every instinct to attack the fat man. “Until they start sending better men to follow me. So, soon, I hope.”

 

         Aureliano stopped suddenly, his nose up in the breeze, frozen like an animal that has just sensed danger. Nikola hadn't noticed him stopping and was still trudging moodily along, just as unhappy about the position they were in.

 

         “ _Blood demon_ ,” Aureliano hissed urgently behind him. Nikola looked back annoyed. “What?” A bullet whizzed by his head and thudded into the tree behind him.

 

         Aureliano, somehow, had the time to be annoyed with him. “I think you have enough attention from the White Hand now.”

 

         “ _Thank you_ , Captain Obvious!” Nikola was already running back down the dirt road, his face melting into its vampiric features. Aureliano had whipped out the semi-automatic pistol hidden in his jacket and was laying down a burst of suppressing fire.

 

         Nikola grabbed his arm when he reached him and put on a burst of superhuman speed to try and whisk them out of what was turning into a bad situation. He heard the roar of vehicles and realized they were trapped. Armored jeeps and motorcycles had appeared out of nowhere to block the path back down to the village and behind them were gunmen appearing from the tree-lines.

 

         Nikola growled bestially in rage and frustration. Yes, he had come here to tempt the White Hand and draw their attention away from New York, but he hadn't wanted to be caught so damn _easily_.

 

         Aureliano had already emptied his clip and had tossed away the now useless gun. Nikola's fingers had extended into their black talons and they stared down the men in black body armor with white hand prints stamped over their hearts.

 

         “There are over twenty of them, blood demon, all armed. We cannot take them all.”

 

         Nikola looked uneasily around him to see it was true. He reached for the stun grenade in his pocket and felt a burst of bullets thud into his arm and chest. Growling he shook them off, stepping in front of Aureliano to try and shield him from the next burst of fire.

 

         Aureliano grabbed his arm, hissing, the most scared and urgent Nikola had ever seen him. “The elemental – that thing in your hand is useless if you don't let it go!”

 

         “What? Are you out of your mind!” Nikola felt two bullets hit home into his face and it felt as if a truck had hit him in the face. Roaring in pain and anger, he looked to the offending marksman. “You are _really pissing me off!”_

 

The men were closing in, taking their time to pick their targets now. Two bullets thudded into Aureliano's chest, and though the vest saved him, he staggered from the impact. Pleading, something Nikola never thought he would see, he tugged on Nikola's arm. “Please, use the elemental, please, it's the only way...”

 

         Nikola heard another bullet whiz by him and Aureliano crumpled to the ground this time. Panic set in and he tried this time out of desperation to reach the elemental within its cage, swirling and pacing by his throat. _Come on...come on, just turn off the shield..._ but fear, a horrible swallowing fear strangled him and he found himself frozen, unable to act.

 

         More bullets hit him in the head and chest and somehow he was on the ground, blood streaming into his eyes and blinding him. He struggled with a Herculean might to lower the shield, _lower the damn shield_ but that fear swallowed him up again and his vision was fading, fading, going black...

 

***

 

         “Nikola. _Nikola_? Come bring in some more firewood.”

 

         Nikola looked around him and saw his breath streaming out of him in plumes. It was a snowy day in Smiljan and he was leaning against the wall of his house, hatchet in hand. He shrugged the fur coat from his shoulders and hung it on the peg beside the chopping block. Hefting the hatchet in his hand, he swung it down.

 

         When he had cut enough wood, he piled it into the furs and brought it back inside, the sudden rush of warmth welcome from the chill outside. His sister Milka was tending the fire and smiled at him, beckoning him over. Once he had set the wood down she went to the kitchen and brought him out some tea.

 

         “The university sent you some more letters today, I think you may have won that scholarship.”

 

         Nikola sipped the tea, grateful for the warmth and felt drops of it clinging to his moustache. He wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve, feeling peaceful in this familiar setting but like something was not quite right.

 

         “Nikola, did you hear me? Do you want to see your letters? Nikola?”

 

         Nikola opened his mouth to answer her but found he could not speak. His vision began to swim, and his sister rushed over to his side, grasping his shoulders.

 

         “You're so pale! Are you all right? Nikola? Nikola...”

 

         His vision blurry, he felt himself falling back and was wondering how long it would be before he met ground. “Nikola...” _I'm here_ , he wanted to say and suddenly it felt as if he had been struck between the eyes and the whole world went a painful white.

 

         He felt a sudden, swooping spell of vertigo and thrashed out, feeling like he was falling again. He felt arms pin him down and slowly realized if he was being pinned down he must not be falling anymore. He blinked, painfully, before the brightness began to dim again. He was _not_ in Smiljan, that was impossible. He was...he was...

 

         Looking into a pair of very familiar eyes, and the sight of them made him confused again. “Helen?”

 

         “Oh thank goodness you're awake.” There was a bit of a commotion and suddenly the world lurched to the right. Nikola struggled to his elbows and realized he was lying down on a stretcher. “Are we in an ambulance?”

 

         Helen was holding onto the rail of his stretcher as the small van shook again. “Yes. And we're being chased by your new friends.”

 

         “Where's the pale freak?”

 

         “Passenger seat. John's driving.”

 

         Nikola found the effort to prop himself up too much and fell back down. “Oh...no wonder I feel like throwing up.” He then had a sudden thought and asked, “Do I have a moustache?”

 

         Helen looked curiously at him and said, “No. Not for several decades.”

 

         “Oh good. Where are we going?”

 

         “The hospital.”

 

         Nikola suddenly struggled to sit back up again and Helen had to force him back down. “No, no we can't – they're all controlled by the White Hand too. No, go somewhere else. Johnny! _Hey, Johnny_!”

 

         “ _What_?” Came the furious reply from the driver's seat.

 

         “The airstrip, near the coast. You know...the airstrip!”

 

         Helen pushed him back down firmly, a worried look on her face. “You aren't making much sense, Nikola. You've taken a lot of trauma.”

 

         Nikola wanted to beat the walls in frustration, but forced himself to calm down and sound as rational as possible. “By the coast is a private airstrip. My plane is there. We have to go _there_.”

 

         “Fine, just shut up back there.”

 

         Nikola finally settled down peacefully, letting Helen hold his hand, that was nice. He suddenly frowned, curious. “How did you get an ambulance? And how are you here?”

 

         She shrugged nonchalantly, trying to keep her poise as John swerved again to try and shake their assailants. “Oh, I hot-wired it. And you're lucky Aurelian had the foresight to bring a panic button with him.”

 

         There was the sudden deafening din of screeching metal and thuds and Nikola saw a trail of dents in the side of the ambulance. The White Hand were close enough to be shooting at them now. Still feeling disoriented and out of sorts, he grasped Helen's hand and looked earnestly into her eyes.

 

         “Are you still mad at me?”

 

         She was caught off guard and couldn't help the small quirk of her lips. “Maybe.”

 

         Before Nikola could think of anything to say to tease her they heard John from the driver's seat call out. “Strap him in, Helen, I have to run through this barricade.”

 

         Nikola heard Helen give a small “oh dear” and felt her tugging leather straps in place around his ankles. He gave her what he hoped was a pouty look. “Always in other people's company, you never let us have a private moment.”

 

         She rolled her eyes and let out a groan as she worked on the straps for his arms. “You must be feeling better if we're back to this  sort of tiresome banter already.”

 

         The ambulance van began to speed up, making Nikola's teeth set on edge. There was a sudden shuddering shock, Nikola heard the wheels squeal, and the splintering of wood. He felt his body lift as he was almost thrown out of the stretcher but the straps pulled him back down. Helen almost collided against the side of the van wall, gamely clinging onto the stretcher.

 

         “Helen...do I still have the elemental?”

 

         Helen looked down at him alarmed, her eyes roaming his collar bone, before nodding. Nikola grit his teeth as the van spun out to the right, Druitt cursing in the front seat as he got them back on the road and shifted gear.

 

         “We're safe then...we're all safe...” Nikola murmured before blacking out again.

 

***

 

         How they made it across the airstrip to his plane was a wonder to him. He was barely able to walk, let alone run, and Aureliano was unconscious and had to be held up by Druitt. Helen had time for her favourite guns, though, and perhaps they had outrun enough of the jeeps that there weren't too many White Hand goons to contend with.

 

         Nikola wasn't sure. All he could focus on was putting one foot in front of the other, _quickly_ , and when close enough, feeling for the magnetic lock on the plane door and releasing it. Druitt had already teleported inside, dropped Aureliano in a seat, and then kicked the landing stairs down from the inside. He grabbed Nikola by the arms and pulled him up into it, Helen following close behind both pistols firing.

 

         Trembling with the effort, Nikola had his hand out and _pulled_ backwards, the door slamming shut through magnetic force. The lock engaged and they heard the next burst of fire 'ping' harmlessly off the plane's hull.

 

         “Stop shooting at my plane!” Nikola yelled, doubled over a seat, still a bit weak in the knees. Helen was already settling down into the cockpit, she was the only one conscious who knew how to pilot this plane. This wasn't Nikola's private jet, just a small two-seater, though it was welcome if cramped shelter from the firefight outside.

 

         “We can't all stay here,” John panted, wiping blood from a round that had nicked his arm. “I'll take Aureliano back to the Sanctuary.”

 

         Nikola nodded, groaning with pain as he eased himself into the co-pilot's seat beside Helen. “Once he's patched up, take him where he wants to go.”

 

         John nodded, grasped Helen's hand and said, “Godspeed,” before hoisting Aureliano up and teleporting them away. Helen grasped the controls and looked over to Nikola.

 

         “Buckle up.” The plane began to roll down the airstrip and she slowly tilted the control upwards as they gained momentum. Nikola felt the plane lurch as it attempted to take air, fail, and bump back down to the ground.

 

         “Nice,” he said, “where did you get your license again? Jamaica?”

 

         Helen shook a stray lock of hair from her face furiously, attempting take-off again. “You really have no sense of tact, do you?”

 

         More 'pings' and dents appeared in the hull by the copilot's seat and Nikola shuddered at the proximity. Fumbling with his seat belt, he almost swore aloud with relief when the plane finally took off into the air, leaving the White Hand miles behind. He shook with exertion as they climbed higher and higher, finally able to let go of the arm rests of his seat when they had leveled out in the air.

 

         He looked over to Helen, who looked just as relieved as he was to have escaped in one piece. “Helen, you are a shitty pilot. Let's go somewhere on a holiday.” Then he passed out.

 


	15. Chapter 15

FIFTEEN

***

 

“Drink this.” Helen lifted his head up and brought a bottle of water to his lips. Nikola sipped a little, coughed, and then tried again. His head was pounding, like someone was beating inside the walls of his skull with a hammer. He looked around and realized they were in the small hold behind the cockpit. He had been resting on some emergency blankets Helen had found in the storage locker.

 

“Which way are we flying?” He asked, struggling to sit up.

 

Helen glanced over her shoulder to the navigational screen and then back to him. “West.”

 

Nikola sighed with relief. “Autopilot on?”

 

“For now.” She smoothed back his hair and he realized he had been sweating. She had a bruise on her cheek and he traced his finger over it before his arm fell to his side. He was very tired, he realized. He looked down at his chest and saw the bullet wounds half-healed. He reached up for his face, finding more lacerations.

 

“I look hideous, don't I?”

 

She raised her eyes to the heavens. “I think you'll be just fine. Vampire, remember?”

 

“Not forgetting that anytime soon.” He drank some more of the water. “How long have I been out?”

 

“About...seven hours?” She looked briefly to the watch on her wrist before sitting down fully, crossing her legs. “Once we reached a stable altitude the autopilot engaged. I figured we could both use a rest.”

 

Nikola arched a devious eyebrow, leaning on his elbow in what he hoped looked suave but he was in too much pain to actually care. “Did you enjoy snuggling up beside me?”

 

Helen's mouth fell open and she went a little red in the face. Indignant she gestured to the interior of the plane. “It's very cramped in here! I can barely move my arms about.”

 

Nikola nodded mock-sagely, pouting his lips. “How's the view from the river Nile?”

 

She opened and closed her mouth several times as she tried to find a suitable comeback, but failed. He loved it when he could render her speechless, and unable to help himself he said, “Stop that, you look like a fish.”

 

He ducked his head in anticipation for the slap that he deserved. Helen was giving him a look that let him knew he deserved one, but because he was sick she was letting him off the hook. He laughed, freely for the first time in a long while, and just felt so good that he held out his arms to her. “You're right, it's cramped, so just come here. We might as well get comfortable.” He sighed at the skeptical look she gave him. “Come here, woman. I'm healing and bleeding and just want a hug.”

 

Helen curled up beside him and he wrapped his free arm around her shoulders. She took a cursory look at the wounds on his chest to make sure they were healing fine, and then settled her head down onto his shoulder. “This is quite a pickle we're in, aren't we? What on earth were you doing in Chile?”

 

Nikola sighed, shifting and wincing in pain as he found a better position to sit in without it straining his neck. “Do we have to play twenty questions right now?”

 

Helen huffed, annoyed, but decided to let the matter drop. She glanced over to the navigational screen again. “Where's the autopilot taking us? Is it just going straight west?”

 

“The autopilot has pre-programmed coordinates.”

 

Helen looked up at him, arching an eyebrow in a silent “Oh?”

 

Nikola grinned, playing with some of her hair. “We've embarked from South America heading west towards India. Or, near enough.”

 

“What do you want from India?”

 

Nikola frowned, prodding her brow gently with a finger. “Stop looking so suspicious. I don't want anything to do with India.” He settled back down beside her and tried to shrug casually (then winced when it sent another flare of pain shooting up his arm). “Just what's in the ocean _near_ India.”

 

He saw her about to erupt into another dozen questions and put a finger to his lips. “Shhh, more nap time.” As he said it he already felt his eyelids growing droopy again. Ah the joys of being a vampire...perhaps the humans' silly idea that they slept during the day was because they were recuperating from all of their wounds then. Helen noticed he was genuinely exhausted and sighed, foiled again. She tucked herself closer in beside him and feeling more comfortable than should have been allowed in the cramped plane, Nikola drifted off to sleep.

 

***

 

“Nikola, wake up.”

 

Nikola was dreaming, in a pleasant state where he felt enveloped in at all sides by warmth and softness. He did not want to wake up.

 

“Nikola, _wake up_ , we've run out of fuel.”

 

Shit. Despite wanting to linger on in that warm place, Helen's panicked tones pierced through the veil and his eyes snapped open. Lurching upright he saw her in a measure of controlled panic in the pilot's seat. “What the hell do you mean we're out of fuel?”

 

Helen looked back at him askance. “As in _you didn't fill up the plane's tank you bloody fool_!”

 

Nikola let out a stream of curses in Serbian as he wrestled with the blankets around him and got to his feet. “We were supposed to refuel back in Chile, but our friends didn't give us the chance.” He looked at the fuel gauge, saw indeed that they were dangerously close to empty, and looked at the environmental meters. They had just enough lift that they would be able to glide for another ten minutes, perhaps...what were the wind speeds?

 

“Nikola, do you have a plan?”

 

He dropped into the co-pilot's seat and held up a finger. “Genius calculating here! _Shh_!” Helen saw his eyes flicker over the plane's dashboard and then close, he muttered rapidly under his breath.

 

“Okay, tilt the nose down thirty degrees and pump the last of the tank into an emergency boost. When I tell you to, level up again. We'll have enough momentum to glide on the South-Westerly wind for another seven minutes. We should be able to make another twenty-six to twenty-seven miles.”

 

Helen's eyebrows went up in alarm, with that sort of distance that meant the nose dive she was about to pull off would garner them a dangerous amount of speed. She didn't question him though, they had been in dangerous situations before where they just had to trust each other to get out of it alive.

 

Nikola felt his stomach swoop when they dived and clung onto the seat, his teeth grinding together. He had to focus though...

 

 _3...2...1!_ “Pull up now!”

 

Helen did and he felt another wave of vertigo wash over him, willing himself not to black out. He was never, _ever_ using this shitty little plane again.

 

“Okay, we're gliding now. Anything I should be looking out for?”

 

“Land.”

 

“Oh dear,” Helen said, toggling the aerial mapping to check for land mass. “Are we going to reach this mystery destination of yours?”

 

Nikola pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head like a dog to try and get rid of the last of the dizziness. “No. But hopefully we'll be close enough.”

 

The next few minutes were tense, and he was counting how much time they had under his breath. He would get out of this fine...especially as there was no fuel in the tank so no chance of the plane exploding. But Helen didn't exactly have the kind of invulnerability a vampire had.

 

“I'm seeing a land mass a few clicks ahead of us.” She looked over to him. “Do you have an eject plan?”

 

“I thought we'd crash the plane into the water.”

 

Helen snapped, “ _Nikola!_ Our momentum will rise exponentially if I go into another nose dive. We will crash under the water – and the pressure will not let these doors open.”

 

He cursed again in Serbian, then rose shakily to his feet, tugging on her arm. “Okay, up we get.”

 

“What are you-”

 

“I'm improvising!” He helped her out of the pilot's seat and they stumbled to the back of the plane. “You said we were just a few clicks away from land, right?”

 

“Yes, but-”

 

Nikola pushed away the blankets and uncovered an emergency hatch. Helen's eyes popped open and she clutched his arm. “You're not serious.”

 

Nikola yanked on the red handle and the lock disengaged. Winds whipped into the hold, screaming against the openings of the metal door, and Nikola kicked down with his foot to clear the hatch completely. He flashed her his patent bastard's grin. “Hold me tight.”

 

The plane speeding along, Helen had no choice but to wrap her arms around his torso and cling tight. Nikola took a breath to steel himself and holding her tightly against him, jumped.

 

They hurtled towards the onrushing water, like a great blue maw, the wind shrieking in their ears. Just as they were about to hit the surface a blue EM shield enveloped them.

 

Nikola could feel the impact of dropping from such heights in his bones, a horrible tingling feeling that shook him to his core. The shield fizzled out around them and he was suddenly achingly cold and wet. He willed himself to keep his mouth closed even though he wanted to scream from the sudden onrush of water coming in from all sides; he would be in trouble if he started swallowing the ocean. The important thing was that he had kept them shielded long enough so that their ear drums hadn't burst from the impact and external pressure.

 

Helen had already disentangled herself and was swimming for the surface. How long she could go without air was more of a concern than his, so swimming just behind her he pushed her upwards in boosts when he could. The distant light was becoming brighter and desperate he gave her another almighty boost.

 

Finally, he felt his body rising of its own volition and a few agonizing seconds later he felt his head break the surface.

 

The sudden onrush of sound was disconcerting and he gulped in sweet, sweet air. Helen was already treading water beside him, thankfully looking none the worse for wear.

 

She looked relieved to see him, a laugh bubbling up from within her borne from the immense adrenaline rush they were both feeling from just having escaped death. “Sometimes I forget how mad you are, Nikola.”

 

Nikola shook water from his face, pushing hair out of his eyes. “I prefer brilliant, thank you.”

 

Helen looked about her and then nodded her head to the left of them. “This way.”

 

They swam towards a distant shadow that encouragingly grew in the horizon as an island. With the sight of land attainable, Nikola felt a giddiness swoop through him and began to race towards the island, calling out “loser!” as he passed her. He heard the sound of water churning behind him as she swam faster and they raced towards the shore. He beat her by a hair, and panting, dragged himself onto the shore, collapsing onto the sand exhausted. He felt her drop down beside him a moment later, and wrapped his arm around her.

 

Lying side by side, the sun-soaked sand warming them, he brushed her hair away from her eyes to see a smile. He grinned back. “Now about that holiday...”

 

***

 

“Hmm...don't eat the red ones, the blue ones are fine though.” Nikola spat out the poisonous berry, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Helen ate a handful of the blue berries they had found in an obliging bush, and then gathered a few more to keep in her handkerchief (“You are still so Victorian,” he had sneered). 

 

He had given her his suit jacket as she was still a little chilly from their swim, and had his shoes tied together by the laces and slung over his shoulder. He had moaned a little bit about ruining perfectly good Italian leather but shut up quickly when she started to question his loss of Adventuring credibility. After that he rolled up his shirt sleeves and tied his necktie around his forehead.

 

“This is my adventuring look.”

 

She tried to hide a giggle and failed. “Oh yes, _very_ Errol Flyn.”

 

Since the emergency rations had been on the plane they made their way to the forest on the island and looked for water and food. She had made his eyebrows shoot all the way up into his hairline when she stripped out of her sodden jeans to reveal a knife strapped to her thigh. When he suggested she keep that look she glared at him and threatened to scalp him. They found some coconuts that she managed to break open and drink from.

 

“We only have a couple hours before sunset.” Helen had a hand up to shield her eyes as she looked out to the horizon. “We'll have to find some shelter.”

 

He sighed gustily as they hiked through the trees. “No vehicles, no phones, no GPS...no shoes. No one can ever say I didn't rough it.”

 

“Do you know where we're headed?”

 

Nikola held back a springy tree branch for her as they delved deeper and deeper into the forest. “We need to make it to the other side of this island. I just don't know how big it is. From there we can see how far it is to the other island.”

 

“We could have followed the coast.”

 

“That would have taken too long. Besides,” He grinned at her, bobbing his head so his necktie swung to and fro. “Adventuring is fun. Say it with me – Adventuring is _fun_.”

 

She just rolled her eyes at him again, but he knew she was hiding a smile. She hacked away at more undergrowth and cleared a new path for them. “Still don't want to tell me why this next island is so important? I think after jumping out of a plane and being stranded you could at least entertain me with your secrets.”

 

“It would ruin the surprise.”

 

“Heaven forbid.” She hacked away at some more branches with her knife and began to collect them in her hand. “We'll need to find somewhere to rest for the night, and we'll need to make a fire before the sun goes out.”

 

Nikola frowned. “You don't happen to keep a lighter on you, do you?”

 

Helen smirked at him, gathering more firewood. “I'm afraid that was a bad habit I never picked up from James and Nigel.”

 

“Your father smoked like a chimney.” She swatted him with the branches in her hand.

 

Helen bent down to the ground several times to look at animal tracks beaten into the dirt. Nikola ended up following her lead for the next half hour or so and noticed that the chill wind was beginning to pick up. Finally they broke into a clearing and Helen pointed at something in the distance. “That looks like a small cave or rock shelf.”

 

Obligingly, Nikola strode over and scouted the area. It was indeed a small rock shelf with enough space for two, so long as they got cosy. There were some rotting leaves inside the alcove, but they could be easily swept away and apart from that there was no sign of an animal having been there for quite some time.

 

“I think this is it,” he called out and heard her obliging call back. He began to make the space a little more habitable and after a few minutes Helen came along with her firewood and some dried bark and leaves for kindling.

 

They scratched out a small indent in the earth near the opening of the cave and formed a ring with rocks. Helen started to form a tent out of the firewood and told him to go collect more large palm leaves and such for their shelter.

 

When Nikola had collected enough to line the earth floor and also add a little more roof to the rock shelf he saw her fiddling with her watch. She had removed the casing from her watch face and had now fitted the tip of her knife underneath the glass and was jiggling it about gently. Finally, the glass disc of the watch popped off and she gathered it into her hand.

 

When she saw him watching her she held it up with a grin. “Fire.” He set down the shelter materials and walked with her to find a sunnier spot. Finding an obliging ray, they set the bundle of kindling down onto a rock and she tilted the glass in the sunlight this way and that until it produced a crisp beam.

 

“There it goes.” Nikola bent down and carefully blew on the smoking leaves and bark. Stubbornly it began to hiss and pop, still only smoking. Holding back another curse he wafted it gently before blowing on it again. Finally, it ignited, small flames crackling merrily and eating up the leaves.

 

He scooped up the rock, small fire and all, and jogged quickly back to their fire-site, placing it in the heart of the wood and nursing it until the other branches caught flame. Helen took it upon herself to finish lining the floor of their shelter and then sat beside the now warm, inviting fire.

 

They sat huddled together in front of the flame in silence as the sun went down. Her clothes had finally dried, but she kept his jacket around her shoulders, her head resting against his arm.

 

“Eat,” he quietly urged her, noticing the drawn, tired look in her eyes. She brought out her handkerchief of berries and looked at him a little self-consciously before beginning to pick at them. He stirred the coals of the fire with a stick as she had her small dinner.

 

They began to hear the calls of birds from the treetops, flocking and hunting together at night. Nikola looked up, even though he could only make out dark shapes here and there. “I forgot how obnoxiously loud Mother Nature could be.”

 

Helen laughed, not as bothered by the sounds of nightlife as he was. “It's like when we were in the rainforest. Do you remember?”

 

“Silly question, of course I do. I also remember being very attractive to the insects. There must be a colony of vampire mosquitoes in the Amazon now.”

 

“Pray they didn't inherit your sense of humour. They would be the most obnoxious beings in existence.” She smirked at the pouty glare he gave her, hugging her knees and flashing her most winning smile.

 

“Helen...thank you.”

 

She looked up at him surprised. Nikola fiddled with his tie, which was now back around his neck, unable to meet her eyes directly. “For coming for us back in Chile. I don't know where I would be right now if you hadn't shown up...”

 

Helen surprised him by chucking him playfully under the chin. “You owe me big time now, Nikola.” He smiled and felt a little self-conscious at having dipped into a depressing mood. The night was dark and scary enough stranded on this unknown island; neither of them could afford to lose their heads now. He scooped her up, surprising her as she shrieked and demanded to be let down.

 

“Oomf!” She tumbled to the floor of the alcove, cushioned by the large palm fronds, and glared up at him. “If you thought that was endearing you have another think coming.”

 

He put a finger to his lips, back to his bratty self, and shushed her. “You need your beauty rest, get to it. I'll bank the fire.”

 

Even though she grumbled a bit longer about how she could take care of herself, _thank you very much_ , it only took five minutes before she had curled up on the leaves and was sleeping peacefully. Nikola let the fire die out until only the very bottom coals were still burning hot and closed his eyes as he listened the night around him.

 

***

 

When Helen woke up it was to find herself surrounded in utter darkness. It took her a moment for her eyes to adjust, but the night was still inky black. She wasn't in a city where there was always some form of light nearby or in the distance...here everything was dark and yet somehow alive.

 

The call of a wild animal somewhere in the distance startled her, breaking the silence with an eerie hooting that sounded like a phantom until she realized it must only be a monkey. Helen shivered, hugging her arms about her and searching the opening of the alcove.

 

Nikola was still sitting there, the last embers of their fire still glowing faintly in the hearth. He looked slightly behind his shoulder and his face was dark. “Sleep, Helen.”

 

His voice was that dark, guttural tone it always assumed when his vampiric side was fully released. She then realized his face seemed so dark to her because his eyes were black. He turned away to look back at the fire and the forest outside, sitting in front of the cave entrance, serene and still as a rock.

 

Helen shivered a little, and unconsciously gathered his jacket tighter around her shoulders. Something always unsettled her about seeing him fully vamped out...about that monstrous side to his nature.

 

But it was that monster watching guard over her and keeping her safe through the night hours.

 


End file.
